If you've ever sat at a New York intersection watching people cross while your light stayed red a few seconds longer than seemed necessary, you've experienced a leading pedestrian interval, or LPI. It gives people on foot a head start of roughly seven to eleven seconds before turning vehicles get a green. It can feel like a delay. The crash data suggest it's a small price.

Between September 2025 and May 2026, NYC Crash Mapper recorded 6,938 crashes in which a pedestrian was injured or killed, about one in four of all crashes in the dataset. In total, 7,145 pedestrians were injured and 82 were killed.

Where a contributing factor was recorded, two stand out. Failure to yield right-of-way appears in about 24% of those crashes, and driver inattention or distraction in about 26%. A crash record can't tell us whether a given collision involved a turn, and it doesn't establish fault. But these are exactly the situations a head start is designed for: a driver turning across a crosswalk where people are already walking, at the curb, where they're hardest to see.

The research on LPIs is encouraging. A Columbia University study published in Nature Cities looked at more than 6,000 New York City intersections and found that a head start of about seven seconds was associated with roughly one-third fewer pedestrian injuries. Earlier analysis from the city's own Department of Transportation found that LPIs reduced pedestrian and cyclist injuries from left turns by 14%. The city has been adding them for years; DOT installed a record 417 in 2015 alone.

None of that makes the intersection safe on its own, and the few seconds are only useful if everyone uses them well:

Seconds of patience at a corner are a small cost against what's at stake in every borough, every day.

Paul Koenigsberg has practiced personal injury law in New York City for 25 years. When someone is injured in a motor-vehicle crash, the immediate priorities are medical care, documentation, and understanding their options. For assistance with next steps after a collision, readers can contact Koenigsberg & Associates .

This article is for general information only and is not legal advice.

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