New York City, renowned for its vibrant energy and bustling streets, is currently grappling with a pressing issue: an alarmingly high number of collisions. This story delves into the concerning trend of collisions in the city, especially during the covid years, and highlights the urgent need for effective measures to address this critical matter.
We use the New York City Motor Vehicle Collisions dataset which contains information about motor vehicle collisions in New York City. The dataset includes data on the date, time, location, severity, types of vehicles involve and contributing factors of collisions that occurred in New York City from 2012 to the present. We selected this dataset because motor vehicle collisions are a significant issue in New York City Boroughs. Collecting and analysing this dataset, we would like to explore and investigate the motor vehicle collisions characteristics finding interesting patterns and trends of them. Furthermore, understanding the factors that contribute to collisions can help reduce their frequency and severity.
In terms of the above plot for the total collisions per year per Borough we can observe the following:
Overall, There was a significant decrease in collisions in 2020 compared to previous years, likely due to the pandemic and decreased traffic volume. It is clear that the COVID pandemic had a significant impact on the number of collisions in New York City, with a sharp decrease in 2020 due to lockdown restrictions. However, as traffic volume returns to pre-pandemic levels, the number of collisions is starting to increase again.
All the fluctuation and changes, for every borough, seem logical, considering the lockdown laws that were imposed. But if we take a look at the total number of people injured from collisions, we might discover something interesting.
According to the above plot with total number of injuries by Borough per year the most interesting findings are the following:
We would expect that the number of injuries would have a proportionate decrease as the total number of collisions, but it is not the case. Somehow, even with significantly less collisions we have a high total number of injured people. Thus, the collisions in the covid period were more injurious compared to the collisions in the before covid period. We believe this is worth looking into and investigating.
The map gives some valuable insight. Based on the folium map with collisions with more than 5 injuries per year in New York City, it can be seen that there was a decrease in the number of such collisions in the year 2020. However, it is quite interesting to note that the accidents that did occur during the Covid period (2020-2022) were more injurious (red color instead of blue color before 2020), likely due to higher speeds, less traffic congestion and higher number of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads. This might clarify and unravel the before mentioned mystery. Probably, most collisions, before the pandemic, were caused during rush hours, when people are either going to work or returning from work, and these accidents typically are not so dangerous and hardly cause any injuries.
The most injurious collision roads include the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Grand Central Parkway, Cross Bronx Expressway, Belt Parkway, and FDR Drive. It is crucial for policy makers to focus on improving safety measures, infrastructure and reducing speed limits on these roads to prevent such injurious collisions in the future.
In conclusion, the alarmingly high number of injuries caused by collisions in New York City demands immediate attention and swift action. With the city's crowded streets and a growing population, the risks faced by motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists are substantial. By addressing the root causes, New York City can work towards creating safer roads for all.