The Board of Directors of the New York Bicycling Coalition (NYBC) is pleased to announce that Monroe, Albany and Suffolk Counties have been selected for participation in a new statewide pilot program. NYBC is a ten-year old advocacy group representing bicycle and pedestrian interests and concerns throughout New York State.

The Community Safety Campaign will focus on the mitigation of traffic safety "hot spots" - intersections or stretches of local road system where recurring accidents have been documented - and also promote safe cycling and walking. NYBC will use innovative multi-media techniques to help educate the public about the benefits and safety requirements of bicycling and walking. In these counties, a local work group comprised of cycling and pedestrian advocates, law enforcement officials, public health officials, transportation planners, engineers and other constituent groups will provide leadership to this effort. The overall intent of the Community Safety Campaign is to correct known problems, with the result - which will be measured in subsequent years - being both reduced injuries and fatalities with a concomitant increase in the number of New York residents biking and walking.

Ben Serotta, President of NYBC, had these comments:

"There was tremendous interest in this program when we contacted counties across the state last summer. The three selected counties provide geographic diversity, and present a variety of site specific challenges (rural, urban and suburban landscapes) whose solutions can be applied to a variety of problem locations throughout the state. NYBC would like to thank the Pataki Administration and the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee for showing real leadership on issues of concern to our membership."

BACKGROUND: NYBC's Community Safety Campaign

This pilot grant of a new statewide program will impact every citizen of the state. Fully half of all New Yorkers own a bike and one third ride them regularly - and every New Yorker is a pedestrian!

The number of New Yorkers either walking or riding a bike to work in New York is on the rise - the State is now first in the country in walking to work and fourth in cycling. Yet, tragically, recent data from the New York Department of Health indicates that bicycle and pedestrian accidents account for 28% of all traffic fatalities in our state. Young boys in this state are four times more likely to be killed on a bicycle in New York than die as a result of violence! The most recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates that there were 49 bicycle deaths in New York in 1997, up from 42 in 1993. There were 383 pedestrian deaths in 1997 - the equivalent of full plane load of passengers on a 747 jumbo jet - and 19,462 pedestrians were injured during that same year.

While four counties will be targeted during this multi-year grant, GTSC and NYBC intend to develop plans to replicate this pilot program for application to all counties within the state. NYBC's Board sees this new grant as a good fit with the organization's overall long-term goal of being able to provide a full set of safe and effective transportation options for all New York State citizens.

The New York Bicycling Coalition is a non-profit, non-partisan statewide membership organization. Since 1990 the group has worked diligently to become a focal point for statewide bicycling and pedestrian program issues. NYBC is able to achieve its objectives largely through the efforts of an all-volunteer Board whose members live in every part of the state and represent private sector cycling and business interests. NYBC has members clubs in all areas of the state.