At the memorial for the 19th cyclist killed this year in New York City, one Brooklyn official stressed the need for community work to stem the tide of deaths.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams, who made a brief appearance at the memorial for Jose Alzorriz on Coney Island Avenue and Avenue L on Sunday, announced a three-pronged bike safety initiative aimed at local work toward street safety.
“Your family is my family, your mother is my mother, this is one family that we are talking about and that’s the family of being safe. No family wants to lose another family member and when we view it as that, that’s important,” said Adams at the event.
The call-to-action included:
- Shift the conversation by recruiting community members to extend hands and unite around the conversation. He encouraged those involved to talk more about the issue instead of just dismissing it as an accident.
- Drivers need to change their toxic energy. Too many people behind the wheels have negative energy that they are sometimes releasing in the reckless driving. Not only do cars need to slow down but the hatred needs to calm down and ultimately end.
- Let’s know and embrace each other. The more love and support we show the more it will spill over to how we live our lives.
Jose Alzorriz was killed earlier this month by 18-year-old Mirza Baig, after the reckless teen ran a red light causing a series of reactions that eventually swept Alzorriz off the roadway while waiting for a greenlight at a busy intersection in Midwood. Alzorriz was hit with more than a dozen charges last
The family and friends of the 52-year-old bicyclist staged a memorial ride and die in over the weekend as a form of tribute and awareness for the need to make changes to the car culture dominating roadways.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams echoed this sentiment citing the need to fast-track roadway redesigns under Vision Zero. Mayor Bill de Blasio launched Vision Zero NYC in 2014 with the purpose of completely eliminate traffic deaths by 2024.
“People need to be able to go to school or go to work on all modes of transportation and feel like they can get there safely. We need to get real funding behind it; we need to see money to get these protected bike lanes…,” said William
Last Friday, the Mayor announced that he orderd the city’s transportation department install pedestrian islands, new left-turn signals and increase pedestrian crossing times at the intersections along the busy corridors north-south thoroughfare between Park Circle and Brighton Beach Avenue, according to mayoral spokesman Seth Stein.
