New York City’s Pedestrian Deaths Hit Lowest Level Since 1910

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The number of traffic fatalities in 2017 in New York City plummeted to the lowest level since record-keeping started over a century ago, city officials said on Monday. The decline was led by a steep drop in pedestrian deaths, which fell by nearly a third from the year before.

The data marks the most dramatic results yet from Vision Zero, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ambitious plan to sharply curtail the number of people killed on the city’s streets. But the good news was tempered somewhat by a slight rise in the number of bicyclists, motorcycle riders and people in vehicles who were killed last year.

There were 101 pedestrians killed in crashes in 2017 — the lowest number since 1910 when the city began recording such deaths. In 2013, when Mr. de Blasio, then a candidate, proposed Vision Zero, 184 pedestrians were killed. The city’s initiative has included steps such as reducing the speed limit to 25 miles an hour, more stringent enforcement of moving violations, revamping hundreds of street corners to slow down turning cars and rejiggering crossing signals to give pedestrians a head start.

“The lower speed limit, increased enforcement and safer street designs are all building on each other to keep New Yorkers safe,” Mr. de Blasio said in a statement. “Now we must deepen this work. Not even a single tragedy on our streets is acceptable.”

The city’s numbers are in stark contrast to a nationwide increase in traffic deaths, many of which were the result of factors such as drivers texting, according to data compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

But while New York’s streets have become less deadly for pedestrians, they still remain perilous for others. In 2017, 23 bicyclists, 33 motorcyclists and 57 people in vehicles who were involved in collisions were killed, all slightly above the tallies in 2016. City officials said the small numbers make drawing conclusions about the reason for the increase a challenge, though they stressed that it further illustrates the need for continued work on making streets safer.

Officials noted that although the number of cyclists in the city has doubled since 2006, the number of deaths has remained relatively static, at between 12 and 24 per year, according to a study released last summer by several city agencies.

Eric McClure, the executive director of StreetsPAC, a political action organization, said more improvements, like lanes that separate bikers from drivers, may be needed to help prevent deaths. “If you’re going to continue to encourage people to bike, then the infrastructure needs to be there to accommodate them,” he said.

The progress also played out somewhat unevenly across the city: Queens, long a hot spot of dangerous thoroughfares threading through residential neighborhoods, had the fewest number of traffic fatalities it has ever recorded — 59. But in Brooklyn, the number was up: there were 57 traffic fatalities in 2017, compared with 51, its record low, the year before.

“The number of lives lost on our streets is still too high, including the increases in fatalities we saw this year among cyclists, drivers and motorcyclists,” said Polly Trottenberg, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Transportation. “We know we have much more work to do to fully achieve Vision Zero.”