Approximately 3 people die everyday in New York City which means around 1095 people die due to car accidents each year. Being born and raised in Queens, New York makes it my top priority to make my home safe. There is an extensive lack of traffic signals. I believe we can accomplish a safer environment and if so, we can all for sure have a better lifestyle outside. In Corona, Queens there are not enough traffic signals and that causes accidents. There are those that might claim that more traffic signals can cause an increase in traffic. Although they fail to realize that 24% of people have survived because of traffic lights and we spend around $871 billion dollars each year due to car accidents, the amount of money we can save from these accidents that can be avoided is outrageous. This is a formal request to add more crossing guards and signs for streets to be more safe for us citizens. 

         New York City has become really dangerous due to the lack of care regarding  traffic signals. This lack of care has caused many accidents in the beginning of 2022 already. To add on, it says “ Transportation Alternatives, has reported that there were 59 fatalities during the first three months of 2022. This statistic represents a 44% increase from the previous year’s first quarterly report. If this trend continues, New York City is on track to surpass 2021’s total of 273 traffic fatalities.” (Wolfe McGuire, Emma, 2022) This demonstrates that New York City isn’t doing well right now and if we don't stop this these numbers will only increase more and more. This is imperative because ‘surpass’ means to exceed. This states that if New York City keeps on having more traffic fatalities we may have more accidents this year than 2021 which is one of the years with the highest amount of tragedies. Additionally, it states “The largest spikes of traffic fatalities have been recorded in Queens and Manhattan, which saw a respective increase of 125% and 120%.” (Wolfe McGuire, Emma, 2022) This highlights that traffic fatalities have been a major problem and most of these are caused by the lack of traffic signals to help keep New York City safe. This is consequential because ‘fatalities’ means an occurence of death by accident. This means that the number of tragedies are increasing horribly. The lack of care with traffic signals is really affecting New York City by increasing the risks of driving vehicles. 

         Traffic lights and signals are very important to impede major car tragedies. Traffic lights and signals save about 83 lives per year. In the text it states “Turn signals reduce injuries for pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as improve safety, comfort and mobility for motorists.” (NYC DOT, 2022) This means that there are different traffic signals, such as a turn signal. Turn signals help make streets more guarded and so that more people who use vehicles can be more safe. This is significant because ‘reduce’ means to make it smaller or less in amount, degree or size. In this case, we are trying to diminish the amount of car accidents. The author writes “A traffic signal controls the right-of-way for vehicles arriving at an intersection, which can reduce traffic delay and accident-producing conflicts. It also makes an intersection safe by determining whether vehicles or pedestrians should proceed.” (NYC DOT, 2022) This shows that traffic signals help prevent accidents and that these tragedies can actually be avoided. This matters because ‘accident-producing conflict’ means problems that can cause injuries. According to this, the lack of traffic signals are causing all of this conflict. Traffic signals are a major part of New York City and to keep us citizens guarded from disasters. 

         Once again, the scarcity of traffic signals and lights are affecting our environment. A way to resolve this conflict that could really help out is increasing the amount of crossing guards and traffic signals. Part of being a citizen is to take care of our community and we do the community a favor while us getting a favor done as well by providing safety and comfort to our environment. This is our home, we should keep united to make this community a better place. I know that with your help we can achieve a better society.