The deaths in the past two days of two pedestrians who were run down by motor vehicles on what are supposed to be the safe streets of Manhattan invites reflection by all of us, drivers and walkers alike, who share the city’s streets and sidewalks. On Sunday, an NYE graduate student, Hanna Eagle, who lived on West 93rd Street, was killed by a man, Wole Parks, who police charged with drunk driving and driving without a license. Eagle had been crossing at 14th Street and Second Avenue. Then, yesterday, philanthropist Andrea Bronfman, a generous contributor to the life of the city and to the world’s Jewish community, was struck and killed by a black sedan while she was walking her dog near 65th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Though there are other pedestrian deaths, these, coming as they did in the heart of Manhattan, are devastating for our community of readers, and the problem of these kinds of accidents has been vexing us for some time. In an opinion piece in the November 16, 2004, New York Sun, the founder of Citystreets, Harris Silver, wrote that “72% of the 15,000 pedestrians that are injured by drivers of motor vehicles every year are hit while they are in a crosswalk. Our crosswalks are so unsafe that a strong argument can be made that as designed, built, and maintained, by our Department of Transportation, they do not provide for safe use of our streets by all residents.”

The city’s transportation commissioner, Iris Weinshall, is on the spot here. One policy would be to change more traffic lights to provide for a “Barnes Dance”* pattern in which traffic is stopped in all directions while pedestrians have a chance to cross. At the police department, Commissioner Kelly could also increase roadblocks aimed at stopping drunk drivers, notwithstanding opposition from a New York Civil Liberties Union that, all too typically, prefers pedestrian deaths to a reasonable search or breath test. One of Manhattan’s great joys is as a walking city. The Bloomberg administration, and Mayor Guiliani’s before it, have, at key intersections in midtown, erected physical barriers that channel foot traffic to safer crossing points. The deaths of Hanna Eagle and Andrea Bronfman underscore that these efforts need to be expanded and supported.

* So named, according to the Federal Highway Administration, for a former commissioner of traffic in Denver, Baltimore, and New York City, Henry Barnes, who popularized the system that made pedestrians so happy they danced in the streets.