Three years ago, Sharon Rodriguez was walking to her job as a bartender in downtown Newark. When the light turned green, she said she stepped into the intersection and was struck by a vehicle.
"And then a car came towards, me, turning. It just hit me from the front. And I slid across the hood," she said.
Rodriguez, 29, said her head hit the hood with such force, the fillings popped out of her teeth. She wound up under the car, at which point, she said, the driver backed up and drove away.
She was taken to the emergency room at The University Hospital in Newark where she needed stitches in her chin, and her jaw had to be reconstructed.
(Photo: Sharon Rodriguez. Kate Hinds/WNYC)
In Newark, roughly 500 pedestrians are struck by cars each year. It’s one of just two dozen cities across the country singled out by the federal government as a pedestrian safety focus city.
Another thing about Newark: its average household income is about half the state’s median.
Experts say that's not an anomaly: there's a statistical correlation between high-poverty neighborhoods and the likelihood of being hit by a car.
"The higher the income level, the lower the likelihood for crashes to occur in an area," said nonprofit fundraising and media coordinator Daniel Kravetz, who analyzed the data for counties in New Jersey while a graduate student at Rutgers University. "And that was found in almost any study that analyzed that relationship."
Researchers are trying to hone in on why this is. One reason: car ownership is out of reach for many low-income people, so they walk more, which increases their exposure to cars. A second reason is poorer neighborhoods often lack even the most basic pedestrian infrastructure.
Improving Intersections
At the intersection of Park Avenue and Fourth Street in Newark there were three serious pedestrian accidents in about an 18-month period and a dozens of crashes, according to state data.
There are no pedestrian lights at the intersection. It is also home to a city light rail stop and a busy NJ Transit bus stop. There are two schools about five blocks away.
"This intersection, if you are not careful, you are definitely going to get hit by something," said Edward Vargas, a 20-year old who grew up in the neighborhood.
"You gotta know how to cross the street – that’s just Newark in general. You gotta know how to cross the street. … I don’t know why it is, it’s just how it’s been, since I’ve been growing up here."
(Photo: Intersection in Newark. Kate Hinds/WNYC)
Newark is trying to improve intersections like this one. This year, the city will spent more than it ever has -- $27 million – on pedestrian and bicyclist safety improvements, according to the city’s traffic manager.
Jack Nata, the city's traffic manager, said he's working on a number of fronts to reduce the number of pedestrian crashes --- not only through infrastructure improvements, but by educational outreach programs and increasingly using red light traffic cameras to calm traffic.
But Newark, like many other municipalities in New Jersey, doesn’t always have final say over its own roads.
"Unfortunately there are certain streets in the city – Park Avenue, Bloomfield, South Orange, Springfield, Lyons – these are all county roads and the city has no jurisdiction over it," he said.
The city can't even paint a crosswalk on those roads because they belong to Essex County, he said. Recently, Essex County applied for a $350,000 grant to overhaul the intersection. If approved, work could be completed in the fall.
The New Jersey State Department of Transportation is also trying to convince cities and counties to adopt the state's "complete streets" policy. Under this approach, roads are designed for all users -- bicyclists, pedestrians, transit riders -- not just cars.
Advocates are turning their attention to trying to improve intersections, one corner at a time.
Alle Ries is director of community and economic development at Newark nonprofit La Casa de Don Pedro, where she runs the group's Caminos Seguros program.
Last year the group partnered with the Rutgers University Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) and performed a road safety audit of the intersection to determine exactly what its deficiencies are.
Kate Hinds is an Associate Producer for WNYC News. She also reports for WNYC and Transportation Nation, a public radio reporting project that combines the work of multiple newsrooms to provide coverage of how we build, rebuild and get around the nation.
Comments [17]
As both a frequent driver and pedestrian in downtown Newark, I have outrage over both the people that aimlessly and recklessly cross the street while I have the right of way, putting both our lives in danger, and those drivers that hurriedly try to make their turn as I cross the street with the right of way. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have almost been hit at the very same intersection because drivers refuse to slow down for me or even notice me as I cross the street. I'm not sure if being impoverished is the answer - downtown Newark is host to people of many economic backgrounds. Perhaps the real answer is that both drivers and pedestrians are too entitled for their own good, believing that wherever they're trying to get to is important enough to cross against the green or make a left turn with a pedestrian in the cross walk.
Teach these "walk the streets safely" in schools right from pre-K. You see the very things that ensures our ultimate survival should be taught in schools right from an early age.( Eg. CPR, learning to swim, walking the streets and being street smart, street etiquettes, the physics of motion, the hazards of fire etc..) Churches should make it part of their sermons. Teaching these things will definitely appear to some as repetitive and boring but it is better this way than death or loss of limbs of our loved ones. We cannot legislate our way out of sheer human stupidity, therefore punishment should go alongside teaching these virtues. The police must act better and enforce the laws better without compromise. Too few put too many in danger all the time. Those few must be dealt with constantly. The dastardly acts of these few is not part of our freedom and should not be tolerated. We need to up our freedom also to mean discipline and respect for one another and for human life. Above all the local politicians and bureaucrats need to serve us better in all our communities. Do you hear that Politicians!!! Tell us something unique you have done today that you can say will save a life !!!
Since Newark has limited control of the road maintenance, perhaps a public awareness campaign would be the first place to start.
Let's keep in mind, pedestrians usually are more agile then automobiles and can stop faster. Also, they don't have to deal with glare or dirty windshields. Comments from others underscore the need to start with pedestrians.
Despite what Mr. Vargas says in the story, many citizens of Newark do not know how to cross the street. Young black women for some reason are the worst offending demographic. They will just cross where ever and when ever they choose. I don't know why, but the defiant looks on their faces sometime leads me to believe that it's a pride thing.
I've even witnessed a young mother carelessly walk with a baby carriage in front of an on coming car.
If you look at the map, there appear to be a high density of accidents in areas other than higher poverty ones. Further, Ft. Lee, hardly a high poverty area, is now enforcing a law to aid in reducing these sort of accidents.
And Clive - you could do Betters
This article does have its merits, but has the researcher done plenty of driving in these areas? As others have mentioned, pedestrians in these areas frequently don't use the crosswalks or even common sense. Drive down Springfield Ave through Irvington and people are crossing all over the place, and it doesn't help with all the double parked cars. There is no consideration, plain & simple. Try Bloomfield Ave in Newark, same thing. If the attitude of drivers & pedestrians were better then this story wouldn't be needed.
I live and drive in the Newark/Irvington area almost daily. It is truly a harrowing experience. People walk out into the traffic from between cars on a regular basis, cars are double parked everywhere and not a cop to be seen. It is no wonder people are being hit. I have had a woman scream obscenities at me as I drove down the street because I didn't stop for her as she crossed in the center of the street from between cars when I had the green light.
One night at 10 pm as my family was coming down Springfield Ave a man walked out from between two parked cars dressed in black with his toddler trailing behind him. If my husband didn't slam on the brakes he would have hit the child not the man. He just looked at us like we had done something horrible.
On Route 22 in South Plainfield students walk along the highway where there are no sidewalks and cars are traveling 50 MPS or more. There is one crossing guard from Springfield to Piscataway.
There are severeal reasons why so many people get hit. Young people today will slow walk the butts out in front of a vehicle daring the driver to hit them; people don't always look before crossing into intersections; young drivers do not have any road courtesy, and people don't have any respect for life. I myself have blown my horn at pedestrians and they flipped me the bird and kept on walking out in the middle of the block. And the police are just as bad as the people.
how many high speed cop chases do you have in great neck long island? duh...
Could it be that transportation policies for the last 50 years have been hollowing out inner cities to accommodate the automobile at ALL costs (NYC a slight exception)?
Newark is a great example of this. Widened roadways (McCarter Highway is crazy), massive parking decks (that are empty after 6pm) and very little done to facilitate the needs of pedestrians. Take white flight and the general exodus of money out of the city and all you have left are poorer people walking and trying to cross roadways that were engineered for high-speed motoring.
No surprise to me but it always good to have someone articulate the problem with hard data.
I drive through the Vailsburg section once a week. People are always strolling across the street - the feeling is more village than city. So, I anticipate people stepping out in front of me or stopping the car in front of me to have a chat with the driver. That's the nature of the route.
I couldn't agree more. I live in Brooklyn. There is an intersection at Washington Ave and Montgomery that people in the neighborhood have complained about for years. No crosswalk, no stop light. And people regularly pass on the double line road because it's the only stretch without a light. It's the worst driving I've seen in the city. The fixes are very simple. Draw some lines or put up a light.
How many million on this!? $350K on one intersection!? In Newark it is indeed the fault of many delinquent drivers. In the past year, I've personally seen 5 hit and runs. 5!!!
However, almost as negligent are the disrespectful pedestrians, who walk as they please on any and every street. Ever try driving on South Orange Ave without having to play reverse-frogger? Broad & Market on a green light?
Most to blame: the worst signaling of any major metropolitan area of any I have scene in this country! Why don't we throw $ at the problem, since that always works.
If there are fewer cars in poorer neighborhoods, it would be helpful for the researchers to find out how many accident involved vehicles come from outside the neighborhood. There are so many accidents when people jump off the congested highways [like the FDR] to try to make up the time on the local Harlem streets. Then the drivers run because they allege being afraid of the reaction from the local community. This effect is compounded as city planners never or rarely run new highways through wealthy neighborhoods.
The infrastructure issues and urban neglect issues in poorer neighborhoods are another story altogether. Attention must be paid; children and pedestrians ought to have the same probability of survival as in other enighborhoods.
To the researchers: Could poverty just be a proxy for urbanicity? Or did you control for that in your models?
As a bicyclist for the past 50 years, I have had my share of run ins with motorists. I ride my bicycle by choice; I own many vehicles but ride ride my bicycle because it makes sense to keep physically fit and I don't polute the environment.
The one thing I notice consistently is that motorists do not look both ways when pulling out of driveways; they only look in the direction of traffic flow and assume there are no pedestrians. Look both ways, we learn this in drivers ed.
My car was once hit from behind in Manhattan as I stopped while turning right so pedestrians could finish crossing in the crosswalk. The driver who hit me got out of his car and immediately yelled at me asking why I had stopped. I responded that there had been pedestrians in the crosswalk. His response to that? "So - why did you stop?" I found it rather ironic that his license plate showed that he was from California, a place known for giving the right of way to pedestrians.
All those issues make it unsafe for pedestrians, but pedestrians (in much of the northeast) are not safe anywhere. I was hit on the southwest corner of Union Square in NYC 15 years ago after being in the city for just 19 days. As Sharon reported, I "slid down the side of the car" and landed on my back. I had the "Walk" sign and the driver (from New Jersey) saw the green light and jumped on it to speed through his left hand turn. His comment after he got out of his car "Didn't you see me?" I responded just like a non-city person, "But I had the walk sign." He had no idea that he was responsible for that accident other than his insurance was sure to ask me for a settlement (and not a good one at that). IF intersection laws were enforced (for both the driver and the pedestrian), not only would we have safer intersections, the city might have more revenue from the tickets and the insurance companies more from increased premiums because of moving violation infractions.
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