Authors

Ayla Fish, UP Nguyen    

Research Question

Which of New York City's streets and intersections are the most dangerous, and what engineering changes would make them safer? Using NYC Open Data, the project quantifies traffic safety and street engineering to identify root causes, propose solutions and create a replicable methodology.

Background

Using NYC Open Data such as streets characteristics and crash data, this project will identify and quantify the city's most dangerous streets and intersections to determine root causes, propose engineering solutions, and create a replicable methodology. Recommendations such as daylighting, traffic calming, Low-Traffic Neighborhoods (LTNs), and camera enforcement will be developed for City Hall and the NYC Department of Transportation (NYC DOT). Additional deliverables for this project will include a budgetary and cost-saving analyses for proposed changes.

Safer streets means safer lives for all NYC residents, and using public data provides transparency and visibility on how street attributes affect safety. Quantifying and ranking the safety of streets provides a readily accessible heuristic to community organizations, elected officials, and residents of NYC to rally and apply pressure towards making streets safer.

Methodology

The project involves:

• Using NYC Open Data, including street characteristics and crash data, to identify and quantify the most dangerous streets and intersections.
• Determining root causes of danger at these locations.
• Proposing engineering solutions such as daylighting, traffic calming, Low-Traffic Neighborhoods (LTNs) and camera enforcement.
• Developing a replicable methodology.

Deliverables

• Algorithm development and design
• Policy recommendations
• GitHub repository with documentation
• Data visualizations

Data Sources

• NYC Open Data street characteristics
• NYC Open Data crash data