Skip to main content

New York City wins ITF award

New York City has won the 2018 Transport Achievement Award of the International Transport Forum (ITF) at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The city’s Department of Transportation was recognised for its commitment to Vision Zero – a programme set up to help cut and eliminate traffic deaths. Mayor Bill de Blasio launched the city’s Vision Zero programme in New York in 2014. The initiative is said to have reduced the number of traffic deaths on New York’s streets by 20% and halved
May 25, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
New York City has won the 2018 Transport Achievement Award of the 998 International Transport Forum (ITF) at the 5342 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The city’s Department of Transportation was recognised for its commitment to %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external Vision Zero false http://visionzero.global/ false false%> – a programme set up to help cut and eliminate traffic deaths.


Mayor Bill de Blasio launched the city’s Vision Zero programme in New York in 2014. The initiative is said to have reduced the number of traffic deaths on New York’s streets by 20% and halved pedestrian fatalities. The city saw 214 traffic deaths in 2017 – the lowest number since records began in 1910.

Additionally, Vision Zero has reportedly reduced the rate of vehicle collisions with children under 14 years to one fatality in 2017. Meanwhile, numerous safety improvements at Queens Boulevard has reached a third consecutive year without any known pedestrian or cyclist fatalities.

In a broader context, findings revealed the number of US road deaths grew by more than 13% between 2013 and 2016. Cyclist, motorcyclist and car passenger fatalities also increased in 2017.

Young-Tae Kim, ITF secretary-general, says: “New York City has created an exemplary road safety programme that is a showcase for addressing urban road safety as a public health issue.”

Related Content

  • Nominations open for ITS Australia National Awards 2017
    June 23, 2017
    ITS Australia has called on Australian governments, industry and academic institutions to nominate cutting edge projects and high achievers operating in the transport technology industry for the ITS Australia National Awards 2017.
  • Los Angeles launches own ‘Green New Deal’
    May 2, 2019
    The city of Los Angeles has released what it calls ‘LA’s Green New Deal’, pledging $860 million per year “to expand the transportation system”. Electric vehicles are at the fore: it pledges an $8 billion upgrade to the city’s electricity grid by 2022, to help build the US’s “largest, cleanest and most reliable urban electrical grid to power the next generation of green transportation”. The city authorities will “expand electric car sharing options” and support implementation of Metro’s first/last mile pl
  • Zero-emission transport at centre of Democrat ‘Green New Deal’
    February 13, 2019
    Clean and affordable transportation and zero-emission vehicle infrastructure are at the heart of the US Democrats’ ‘Green New Deal’ package. The proposals seek to move the US away from fossil fuels and other sources of emissions that cause global warming within the next decade. The package says these goals can be reached by reached by a ten-year “national mobilisation” which include an overhaul in transportation systems to eliminate pollution and greenhouse as much as technologically feasible, repai
  • Petrol/diesel cars could be fined for using London’s ‘electric streets’
    September 4, 2018
    Drivers in London, UK, could be fined £130 for not using electric or hybrid vehicles on nine ‘electric streets’. The project is intended to cut pollution and improve air quality. Drivers of petrol and diesel cars will be restricted from using some roads in the Shoreditch and Old Street areas of the city between 7am-10am and 4pm-7pm on weekdays.