This is the fifth year Albany Bicycle Coalition, Walkable Albany and Capital Streets have joined together for the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. This Friday, in more than 70 cities and towns across the country people are gathering to:
Remember those killed and seriously injured in crashes, and for calls to action to end this public health crisis on our roadways
Weather permitting we will be gathering at 10 a.m. in Academy Park, at Washington and Eagle across from Albany City Hall. Speakers, including family members of those lost to traffic violence, civic leaders and safety advocates will give brief remarks.
We will end by remembering persons that have died locally due to traffic violence. Sadly, there are too few of us and too little time to account for and read the names of all such persons.
We will be reading the names of vulnerable road users, pedestrians and bicyclists, that have died on Albany County roadways since 2020. Some names were not released and some incidents are not publicly reported in a timely manner.
Symbolizing persons that have died on our roads are shoes representing the pedestrians, a ghost bike and helmets representing the bicyclists and white flags representing motor vehicle drivers and passengers.
We are grateful that officials have taken actions that we have asked for in our four previous Days of Remembrance. Last year we called for local governments to adopt the goal of Vision Zero: the elimination of fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways. In May the county approved a Vision Zero Resolution. We look forward to a county action plan to see that goal achieved.
Two years ago we called for a county 3-foot safe passing law for vulnerable road users. This year the County passed that 3-foot safe passing law, introduced by legislators Laurilliard and Fein. They have helped kick start a wave of other counties adopting defined safe passing laws. We hope New York State will be inspired to join more than 40 other states with statewide laws.
This year the national theme of this Day of Remembrance is “Invest in Safety, Not Speed"
Safe speeds, safe roadways, safe vehicles, safe behavior and emergency response are all essential elements to the long run goal of Vision Zero. We are particularly grateful to law enforcement as their work is so essential to each of these elements of traffic safety.
A few years ago we asked the City of Albany to implement a citywide 25 mph speed limit and school zone speed cameras. The city completed implementing these safety measures by the start of 2025 along with speed humps on residential streets. By the end of October of 2025 we saw year over year crashes drop 9% and injuries from crashes drop 22%. Slower speeds have made crashes less likely and less injurious in the city of Albany.
Unfortunately, countywide we have seen deaths and serious injuries continuing to rise. The last five years of public data show the mayhem on Albany county roads was worse each year than the year before.
This year we are turning our attention to Albany county’s biggest town, the town of Colonie. Colonie is home to consistently deadly roads, especially Central Avenue and Troy-Schenectady Road. People, represented by shoes, helmets and flags at our ceremony, died in Colonie on those roads. People have died at Latham Circle and along 155 where there were no sidewalks only to be followed by more people dying in the same places because needed safety improvements were not made. We ask for the town of Colonie to adopt the goal of Vision Zero, to invest in safety, not speed and to create a plan of action to end these preventable tragedies on Colonie roadways.
Finally, we need to do more to prevent e-bike and e-scooter fatalities and injuries. We especially need to prevent the sale of those dangerous illegal devices that exceed the 20 mph “motor speed limit”. We need to get them off our roads and we especially need to get them out of the hands of kids under 16 - who under the law should not even be operating legal e-bikes and e-scooters. Parents need to stop providing any of these devices to minors.
Schools need to fulfill their education law section 806 requirement to teach bicycle safety, including making sure students and their parents understand these and other bicycle safety laws.
To end the mayhem on our roadways: schools, parents, local governments, all of us, need to invest in safety, not speed.
Ed Brennan is president of the Albany Bicycle Coalition.
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