Abreu asks DOT about cut-through traffic data

LTNs have many benefits, but a key one is that they prevent cut-through traffic in residential areas, right?

While cut-through traffic is a problem all over the city, it is worse in certain communities.

What data does DOT use to analyze cut-through traffic?

And how is that data used by DOT to inform street design interventions?

Yeah, and that's a really good question, Chair, because it is one of the things that other cities have used to really choose where they're doing things like low-traffic neighborhoods.

And we don't have knowledge of where every vehicle is.

It is in the city at all times.

What we're trying to do now is use some of the bigger data sources that use things like anonymized cell phone data to figure out where are there areas where there's vehicle trips that neither start nor end in an area, which is kind of a description of cut-through traffic.

Is there any way you can get data from Waze or these companies to help you study that better?

Yeah, without naming all the companies, that's the kind of things we're talking about.

Something I'll just add, you know, that I thought was pretty eye-opening is that a large chunk of our automated camera violations actually go to vehicles registered out of the city.

So it does seem like, you know, if some New Yorkers or some neighborhoods are perceiving that there's folks cutting through their neighborhood, the data suggested that that is the case.

So, you know, that just sort of underscores the potential here.

Are there any street design tools currently used by DOT that are primarily aimed at reducing cut-through traffic in residential areas?

That doesn't include an LTN.

Yes.

So, I mean, just Councilmember Ressler actually mentioned one that we implemented just a few weeks ago

in his district where we used what we call a diverter, where traffic is still allowed on every street in the intersection, but traffic from certain streets is forced to make a left or a right onto another street so that they can't just drive straight through.

So, you know, that's an example, a thing that we've learned from places like London as being very effective.

It's designed so that if you're on your own,

on a bike or you're walking, you can, of course, continue going straight.

But that vehicle traffic cannot take such a direct route.

Have you all been in conversation with London folks or government leaders there?

Yeah, absolutely.

In fact, I got to see some of these in person not too long ago.

And we've even had them come and sort of exchange knowledge with our team.

So we're trying to soak up as much information as we can.

Great.