DOT Announces Plan for Older Adult Pedestrian Safety

Vision Zero: DOT Announces Plan for Older Adult Pedestrian Safety

NEW YORK: NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez on June 14, announced that the NYC Department of Transportation has released the Pedestrian Safety and Older New Yorkers Study, as well as a series of initiatives that are part of a larger investment to improve overall pedestrian safety at intersections. The study analyzes key factors contributing to crashes amongst older New Yorkers and put forth commitments to Vision Zero treatments like turn calming, which lower senior pedestrian deaths and serious injuries by up to 60%. The report also identified new Senior Pedestrian Zones to guide future engineering, enforcement and education. DOT will install turn calming treatments at 50 intersections annually and drastically expand pedestrian head-starts (known as Leading Pedestrian Intervals — or LPIs) installations by 2024 within those same zones, along with a host of other commitments to keep older pedestrians safe. “We recently convinced Albany to allow us to operate our speed cameras 24/7, but we have even more work to do,” said Mayor Eric Adams. “Because the lives of the oldest New Yorkers are so precious, we are going to also work around the clock to protect them — being relentless in our pursuit of street safety — including safer designs.” “Crashes do not necessarily occur more often to older pedestrians, but we have found that when they do happen, the crashes are far deadlier,” said DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “That is why we must make the areas around senior centers even safer, building safer streets that are inclusive to all New Yorkers -- but especially those who are most vulnerable. Data is always at the forefront of our work, and this study allows us to make targeted investments that will save the lives of seniors citywide.” “As an age-inclusive city that is committed to providing community care for older New Yorkers, protecting our older adults from traffic injuries and traffic deaths is imperative. I would like to thank the Department of Transportation’s leadership for highlighting this important issue and for the target goals outlined in the study that will help improve pedestrian safety,” said Department for the Aging Commissioner Lorraine CortésVázquez. Senior Pedestrian Zones identified in the study will guide future engineering, enforcement and education. They cover the locations of approximately 30% of citywide older adult fatalities and severe injuries but only 13% of the city’s square mileage. DOT’s data driven commitments include: •Extending LPI crossing times during mid-day in Senior Pedestrian Zones and at new LPI locations by the end of 2024 •Adding LPIs at all feasible intersections on Priority Corridors in Senior Pedestrian Zones by the end of 2024 •Creating Senior Turn Calming initiative and installing treatments at 50 Older Adult targeted intersections annually •Implementing ten or more Senior Street Improvement Projects annually •Targeting Raised Crosswalks to older pedestrians and safety improvements near and at bus stop locations •Targeting safety improvements to bus stop locations under elevated trains •Targeting Older Adult Education and Outreach to Senior Pedestrian Zones l

DOT Commissioner, other officials and community members at the press conference. Editorial credit: PP/IQINC

Speeding ruins lives. Slow down.

DACA and the Distance Still to Go for Dreamers

BY CHANCELLOR MATOS RODRÍGUEZ & CO-FOUNDER DONALD E. GRAHAM

It’s been exactly a decade since President Obama, at the urging of undocumented students, signed an executive order creating DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA allowed young people raised in America, known as Dreamers, to secure an education and legal jobs despite their immigration status. It turned out to be a masterpiece of policymaking. It is a challenge to name a federal program that has accomplished so much at so little cost. The program is still working wonders for the 600,000 people currently enrolled in it, but no one else can apply for the program because of various court fights and congressional inaction, meaning most undocumented students graduating from U.S. high schools this year and many graduating from college cannot work legally. At the City University of New York, this includes some nurses or trained teachers who just graduated yet can’t work in New York’s desperately understaffed hospitals and public schools. In some cases, these may be local schools where they were educated. Most Americans side with the Dreamers — those students who came to the U.S. as young children with their undocumented parents in search of a better life. The most recent Pew survey says that 74% of Americans favor giving Dreamers permanent legal status. Still, cruelly, among high-school students, only Dreamers cannot access federal aid for college. That means no federal Pell grants or even loans — and in most states, no state aid either. (Fortunately, New York State is a notable exception to this rule, and allows Dreamers access to state funds.) The Obama administration created the DACA program in 2012 by ordering the Department of Homeland Security — after Congress failed to take action — to create a special legal status for young people raised in this country. To enroll in the program, recipients had to meet several requirements including coming to the U.S. before June 2007, prior to their 16th birthday, and having never been convicted of a serious crime. The applicant had to pay $495 to apply for DACA status, and renew their status every two years. In return, DACA applicants — unless they commit a serious crime — won a respite from deportation for two years, a work permit and Social Security number. CUNY has always been welcoming for immigrants of any kind, documented or undocumented. More than a third of CUNY undergraduates were born outside the U.S. mainland, hailing from a diversity of countries including the Dominican Republic, China, Bangladesh, Jamaica, Guyana, Ecuador, Haiti and Mexico, and an estimated 5,000 CUNY students are undocumented. These students often face severe obstacles in accessing basic resources such as financial aid, in-state tuition, scholarships, governmental resources and other forms of public assistance. But these students are invaluable to our classrooms, their curiosity, tenacity and commitment to learning strengthen our colleges. DACA has also been good for the economy. The organization American Action Forum estimated that DACA is adding $42 billion a year to the United States’ GDP, and $3.4 billion to U.S. tax coffers (and both will clearly grow, since DACA recipients are in the early stages of their careers). Other estimates are much higher. Despite the benefits of DACA,

Editorial credit: Susan Montgomery / Shutterstock.com

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Legal Proceedings Begin On Local Law 11-2022

Staten Island, NY: On June 3, the Our City, Our Vote coalition, a group of advocates fighting for expand access to the ballot box held a press conference alongside elected officials at the Richmond County Supreme Court ahead of the start of the legal proceedings around the lawsuit against the Our City, Our Vote law (Local Law 112022). Enacted in January, Local Law 11-2022 allows lawful permanent residents and persons authorized to work in the United States in New York City to participate in municipal elections beginning in 2023. New Yorkers spoke about how Local Law 11 would empower immigrant communities by giving them a say in who represents them in local elections, while also denouncing the lawsuit as another instance of restricting voters’ access to the ballot box. With over 800,000 eligible residents, New York City would be the largest jurisdiction in the country to offer voting rights to its non-citizen residents. Advocates also called on the Mayor and City Council to create a $25 million fund to be distributed to conduct truly expansive city-wide voter registration, voter education, and GOTV, while additionally increasing the budgets of the NYC Board of Elections (BOE) so that they may properly implement Local Law 11. The budget increase will allow the BOE to educate new voters of their rights, support voter registration and increase language access and translation services. Livestream of the event is linked here and photos and video are attached. “Today’s court proceedings are yet another example of Republicans trying to disenfranchise Black and brown communities through misinformation and deception,” said Murad Awawdeh, New York Immigration Coalition Executive Director. “Local Law 11 would make it possible for immigrant New Yorkers who are active in their communities, work here, raise their children and pay taxes here to participate in their local democracy. They deserve to have the right to elect the individuals who represent their interests. When it’s all said and done, New York City’s immigrant communities will prevail.”l DACA and the Distance Still to Go/ continued from page 12 President Trump halted the program in 2017 and, in July 2021 a federal judge in Texas ruled it was unlawful. Even when President Biden temporarily reopened applications before the court decision, only a fraction of first-time applicants were approved, leaving a backlog of more than 55,000 pending applicants. Tens of thousands of young people remain in limbo, including many finishing school and eager to contribute to our economy. This month, New York’s high schools will be graduating students who have been living in the U.S. for most of their lives but arrived too late to benefit from DACA. TheDream.US, which provides college scholarships to Dreamers, found that the average age of their recipients came to this country as a 4-year-old. No democratic country punishes anyone for actions they took as a 4-year-old — except for our country and for these students. All Dreamers deserve to secure legal work in the U.S. without fear of deportation for a decision they had no choice in making. Congress has introduced dozens of bills that would let these students remain in this country to study and work — and one day become citizens — but failed to address this ongoing problem. Conservative estimates predict that 98,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools every year — almost a million in 10 years. Without congressional action, the opportunities for these young students to attend college will be drastically limited, denying them the education to work in our hospitals, schools and other industries that contribute to our economy and wellbeing. And we as a nation will suffer.l Félix V. Matos Rodríguez is the Chancellor for CUNY and Donald E. Graham, is the co-founder of TheDream.US scholarship. This op-ed originally appeared in the New York Daily News on June 15.