David Bartner testifies as parent about dangerous streets
David Bartner, a Brooklyn father of three, says dangerous driving happens daily near his home and a car with about 20 speeding tickets and Jersey plates nearly hit him. He says the danger is huge vehicles, not delivery bikes, and wants children to be able to bike independently.
Hey, my name's David Bartner.
I'm a father.
I live in Brooklyn.
I have three kids.
Sorry, I don't know why I'm emotional, but every day someone does something dangerous in a car.
Every day near our house.
And there's no accountability.
The other day I was almost hit by a car that had like 20 speeding tickets.
And I had jersey plates.
And that car's been looked up on How's My Driving like 10 times.
It's absurd.
This guy knows how to cross the street, but he can't because it's so dangerous.
And that's why all parents don't let their five and six-year-olds cross the street on their own.
That is no kind of a society.
We have to be moving fast to allow our children to grow independently where the consequences of a mistake are not life and death.
The danger is not delivery bikes, who have gotten a lot better, I would say, in the last couple of years on the streets.
The danger are these huge vehicles.
Who are making noise.
Everything as small as making noise to wake these kids up from naps, to disturb our peaceful neighborhoods, to slaughtering our children for something as simple as riding a bike.
I really want to ask the city is when he's 10 years old, he's six.
When he's 10, will he be able to ride a bike to his friend's house on his own?
Unfortunately, I think probably not.
But that's a simple goal, and we should aspire to it.
And anyone who's trying to get in our way is getting in our way.
in the way of very simple progress that is attainable.
We see it in other cities.
We see it in other places.
The reason parents don't let their kids do this stuff anymore is because in the 70s, in the 60s, look up the numbers of kids who died by cars.
It was horrible.
So parents started keeping their kids indoors.
And go back in New York City history, you'll see protests from children, from mothers in the 40s and 50s.
They gave up.
And a lot of them left.
Let's build streets for our workers, for our children, for joy and for beauty.
Thank you for your heartfelt testimony.
Government needs to do a lot, a lot more.
But appreciate you taking your time and bringing your kids with you.
We're doing it for them.
Thank you.
This panel is excused.
Fakrul Hassan, Modi So, Jairi Castro, John Stephen, Bubakar Barry.
As a reminder to please state your name before you speak.
Thank you very much.