Following a series of high profile injuries resulting from items thrown from pedestrian overpasses, Council Member Erik Martin Dilan, Chair of the Committee on Housing and Buildings, and Council Member James Vacca, Chair of the Committee on Transportation, will hold a joint hearing to examine two bills that address the need for fencing on publicly accessible overpasses.
Introduction 750-A would require private developers to construct 8-foot high fences on publicly accessible pedestrian walkways and commercial parking garages that are part of shopping malls.
Introduction 755 would require the Department of Transportation to construct 8-foot high fences on City-owned property that crosses a pedestrian area, bicycle lane, or motor vehicle right of way.
Last August, a cyclist was hit in the face with a brick thrown from a pedestrian overpass into a bike lane in Fort Greene. In October, a Manhattan woman was seriously injured when teenagers threw a shopping cart from an overpass at a shopping center in East Harlem, and in January, two Bronx men were hit by a shopping cart thrown from the upper level of a commercial parking garage.
WHO: Council Member James Vacca, Chair, Transportation Committee
Council Member Erik Martin Dilan, Chair, Committee on Housing & Buildings
David Woloch, Deputy Commissioner of External Affairs, NYC DOT
Representatives from the New York City Department of Buildings
Real estate developers
Pedestrian and cyclist safety advocates
WHERE: 250 Broadway, 16th Floor Committee Room
WHEN: Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 1 p.m.