• Safe streets and the fire service conflict

    It’s time for the fire service to become an active partner in overall public safety.
    On a warm day in 1971, I was on my way to the local bodega near my home on 79 th Street in New York City when I saw a ladder truck stopped next to the store. A few of the fire fighters were hanging around with sour looks on their faces. The radio was squawking away and they were listening intently...Read more

  • A city street is a terrible thing to waste

    To stop the killing of pedestrians on New York City Streets, we have to change the way we build our streets
    N ovember 13th—Friday the 13th—marked the 13th day in a row that a pedestrian died on a New York City Street, all killed by cars or buses going too fast. These fatalities occurred because despite all the progress New York has made since Mayor de Blasio and his DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg...Read more

  • What traffic engineers can learn from doctors

    Traffic engineers as a group have been much slower to recognize their erroneous techniques and replace them with less damaging practices.
    Professionals make mistakes. Doctors made a 100-year mistake called the radical mastectomy, based on an erroneous theory of how cancer spreads. But when studies proved this surgery unnecessary, doctors replaced the once-common procedure with a less damaging treatment in a surprisingly short period...Read more