Public security

If Cars Are Weapons, Then Safe Streets Are The Best Counterterrorism

There is also an opportunity to look to Europe here for examples of how vehicular traffic might be limited in high-density urban centers. “You have many European city centers where large trucks aren’t ever allowed,” Steely White says. “The mere physics involved with having large vehicles in close proximity to cyclists and pedestrians points to the need to insulate these vulnerable road users from the potential deadliness of those vehicles.”

Transportation Alternatives is in talks with NYPD’s Counterterrorism Bureau and the Department of Public Transportation to emphasize the need to build out protections across all of New York’s public spaces–pedestrian plazas like Herald Square and much of Broadway, Steely White says, are examples of areas that could benefit from increased safety measures. There’s also a need for law enforcement and city agencies to ensure that spaces meant for pedestrians and cyclists–like bike lanes–become more and more protected from cars (the irony of the constant scourge of cop cars parking in bike lanes is especially rich in this context).