The Long Tail of Deadly Intersections

Here’s the surprising thing about the most dangerous intersections in New York City, like the Myrtle-Wyckoff-Palmetto death trap in Ridgewood:

“There are about 1,800 severe pedestrian injuries a year and you’ll rarely find an intersection with more than three or four in an individual year,” [Ryan Russo, DOT’s assistant commissioner for traffic management] said. Russo says that if you could eliminate every death and serious injury at the 52 most dangerous intersections, you’d reduce the citywide total by only four percent.

In other words, a graph of dangerous intersections would be all tail and no head; death lurks around every corner.