Chelsea residents are all too familiar with traffic fatalities. This Sunday, join the 3rd Annual Memorial Ride, Walk and Rally. The event, organized by The Street Memorial Project, is held all over the city and will converge at City Hall at 4:30 pm.
Expanding on an idea started by Visual Resistance in Pittsburgh, The Street Memorial Project commemorates the victims of traffic fatalities by putting up plaques or ghostbikes at the site of the accident. Rachel said that they have no funding and the plaques and ghostbikes are paid for by the volunteers. "The bikes are donations," she said. "They are junk bikes. We pay for paint, locks and expoxy to hold the bike parts together so they don't get stolen." While they try to mark fatality, she admits there is a large gap in what they know. They press does not report every accident. Even the closely held traffic statistics that are available from the Department of Health and the Department of Transportation don't match due to different reporting standards.
Caroline Samponaro of Transportation Alternatives said there are 15,000 traffic and anywhere from 150 - 300 traffic fatalities each year, which means that on average, someone dies in a New York City traffic accident every other day. "This is a public health issue that is overlooked," she said. She said there is a real need for change in the streets, making streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, people in wheelchairs, and the elderly. "All of this is preventable," she said. "When the streets change, so will these numbers."--Sherry Mazzocchi
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