Many people don't know it, but the gold standard of New York City daylighting has been quietly keeping Upper West Siders safe for nearly sixty years on two blocks of West 94th Street.
Like so many street improvements that infringe, even a little bit, on the car-dominant status quo, the changes to West 94th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Central Park West, only happened because of the tireless efforts of local residents in response to a preventable tragedy.
It's noteworthy that the design is still there decades later and continues to work as intended.
Based on available data going back to 2011, of the 400 plus crashes at intersections along Columbus Ave in Community District 7, only one crash occurred at West 94th Street—the lowest of any of the 46 intersections along that stretch. 83% of intersections had five or more crashes over that time, accounting for 93% of the 450 plus injuries, while the intersection at West 94th Street had just one injury, making it the safest of any intersection along this corridor in the past fifteen years of data.
The type of daylighting used on West 94th incorporates curb extensions, also called "neckdowns," which narrow the street near the intersection, giving pedestrians more space, improving visibility, and signaling to drivers to slow down. DOT’s own data confirms that daylighting combined with neckdowns are the single most effective treatment in their toolkit to improve street safety.
So, why isn’t this treatment everywhere?
There is a bill in the City Council that would do just that: compel the NYC DOT to follow state law and implement daylighting at all intersections. There will be a hearing in a couple weeks to discuss the bill, which means you—yes, you!—can help ensure every intersection in New York City gets this important safety treatment.
We expect DOT to testify at the hearing that they want to retain the ability to pick and choose where daylighting is implemented based on KSI data—that’s macabre jargon for how many of our neighbors are killed or seriously injured in crashes.
As West 94th Street shows, we've known for generations how to design intersections to prevent those KSI crashes from happening in the first place. What if we applied that same decades-old design treatment everywhere?
It can happen, and you can help.
Scroll down to the ✅ To Do List ✅ for ways you can support daylighting right now.
