Is it Safe to Drive in the Big Apple?

According to nyc.gov, on May 2, 2022, NYC Mayor Eric Adams and the NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez launched a $4M campaign entitled "Speeding Ruins Lives, Slow Down" to counter rising traffic violence and curb dangerous driving behaviors that have occurred at higher rates since the onset of the Covid pandemic. The goal of the campaign is to eliminate traffic fatalities. Data from 2021 show the city experienced 294 fatalities. Mayor Adams states the number of traffic related deaths in 2021 was "the highest number in years".

Key Insights/Recommendations

· Improved data collection and/or data entry for a more thorough analysis. Thousands of collision locations and contributing factors were unfortunately marked unspecified.

· Increased speed monitoring on the Belt Parkway.

· Increased patrol on Fridays due to high number of accidents and fatalities.

· Reassess fines regarding factors that contribute to driver distraction.

Data

First, let's explore trends for total accidents based on time of the year. We can see more accidents during late spring and early summer likely due to an overall increase of traffic because of nice weather and potentially out of state visitors.

You will notice total accidents for 2022 started higher than 2021 with the trend following 2021. The campaign “Speeding Ruins Lives, Slow Down” launched in May 2022 helping total accidents trend below 2021.

294 people lost their lives in 2021 and according to mayor Adams it was the deadliest year on NYC streets. July 2022 was the deadliest month with 39 fatalities. In 2022, 282 lives were lost which was a 4% drop year over year.

There is a spike in accidents on Fridays based on day of week analysis.

Total Fatalities per day of week is similar to total accidents with Friday leading with the most fatalities...103 combined for both years. Sunday had surprising results. 80 people lost their lives on Sundays in 2021 and 2022 combined, 21 due to unsafe speed and 9 due to driver distraction.

Late afternoon/evening rush hour, morning rush hour and midnight are the most popular times to have an accident based on time of day analysis.

In 2022, 33 deaths occurred between 11 pm and 5 am which was a 17% drop from 40 deaths during the same time of day in 2021. In 2021, 6 am was the deadliest hour with 5 deaths occurring when drivers were distracted. For 2022, the late afternoon/evening hours from 3pm - 9pm seem to be the deadliest, with a spike around 6 pm (4 deaths).

These are the 10 Most Dangerous Streets in NYC based on the total number of fatalities for 2021 and 2022. The Belt Parkway is a 6 lane parkway providing access to 4 of NYC’s 5 boroughs and JFK International Airport. Atlantic Avenue, which is one of Brooklyn’s most important corridors connecting downtown Brooklyn to Queens and Long Island, has had some success noting an 87% decrease in fatalities from 2021 to 2022.

These are the Top 10 Contributing Factors to Fatal Accidents. Based on the name of the campaign, unsafe speed was correctly identified as the #1 traffic safety concern with a total of 135 deaths in 2 years. Driver Distraction was second with 63 total deaths.

For ongoing analysis, I created a dynamic dashboard for the Chief of Transportation providing a quick snapshot of Total Fatalities, Total Injuries, Dangerous Streets and Top Contributing Factors to Accidents filtered by borough.