Efforts to Improve Pedestrian Safety

Announced in 2016, the New York State Departments of Transportation and Health have teamed up with the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee (GTSC) on a first-of-its-kind pedestrian safety campaign in New York State. The Pedestrian Safety Action Plan (PSAP) provides a $110 million, five-year commitment to improving pedestrian safety across upstate New York and Long Island through the “Three Es” – Engineering, Enforcement and Education.

Several times each year, at locations around the state where there are persistent issues with pedestrian-related crashes, the GTSC offers a one-day, “train-the-trainer” course taught by active law enforcement who are experts in the fundamentals of pedestrian safety education and enforcement. Officers learn about New York’s PSAP, explore current pedestrian crash issues and data, and are provided with materials, tools and strategies for the effective implementation of pedestrian education and enforcement countermeasures.

Each June, the GTSC organizes and promotes a two-week, statewide, pedestrian safety enforcement mobilization, Operation See! Be Seen! GTSC works with police agencies covering the twenty designated PSAP “focus communities” to allocate a portion of their Police Traffic Services grant to fund additional patrols during this high-visibility blitz. Participating police agencies are encouraged to issue warning cards and educational materials to pedestrians and drivers found to be violating the law during the first week of the campaign, and citations during the second week. Public service announcements also run during this period on radio and television to alert the public to the campaign.

The GTSC partners with local health departments and community-based traffic safety programs in high-crash locations statewide to promote law-based educational outreach programs for the public. These projects utilize the suite of See! Be Seen! materials that have been created as part of the PSAP to engage various age-appropriate audiences. Special incentive grant funding to support these targeted traffic safety initiatives is available. Contact the GTSC for more information.

Walk to School Day, celebrated each year during the first week in October, is a national event that gives communities across the country an opportunity to join in walking safely to school. It is part of the movement for year-round safe routes to school, and encourages walking as a healthy way for kids and families to make their school commute. The GTSC promotes and participates in these events and encourages its pedestrian safety partners across the state to consider supporting a safe walking program at a school in their region. In 2018 a total of 73 events were held in New York. For more information and to access campaign materials, please visit the Walk and Bike to School website.

The Walk-Bike New York Symposium is a critical component of New York’s pedestrian and bicycle safety program. Organized through the joint sponsorship of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the GTSC, the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research (ITSMR) and other safety partners, the symposium attracts more than 150 local, state, federal and private agency professionals devoted to building strong communities where people of all ages and abilities can safely and comfortably walk and bike.

More information is available at the ITSMR website.