Streetsblog reported Tuesday that New York City had – after several months – updated its Vision Zero View map, and the news, unfortunately, isn't good: traffic deaths increased in the first six months of the year vs. the same period in 2015.

Overall, 111 people died in traffic crashes from January to June, an increase of four deaths from the year-ago period. People on foot accounted for 58 of the fatalities, and 12 people riding bikes were killed, vs. 63 and 5, respectively, in the first half of 2015.

Traffic injuries suffered by pedestrians and cyclists, which as Streetsblog points out are less subject to random variation, also increased, up 9% vs. last year (injuries to people on bikes were up 15%). The city does not report on the severity of injuries.

While the increase in traffic deaths and injuries isn't catastrophic (a particularly bloody June accounted for all of the bump in deaths), they're a stark reminder that the city needs to double down on its commitment to Vision Zero if we're going to achieve the goal of eliminating all traffic deaths by 2024. And that means putting significantly more money and effort into redesigning city streets, especially our deadliest arterial roads.

Vision Zero is first and foremost about the way streets are engineered. And while the City Council requested a 25% increase in funding for street redesigns in the new budget, City Hall did not adhere to the Council's request. Occasional NYPD crackdowns on dangerous driving and marketing campaigns are no substitute for safer street designs.

We know how to achieve Vision Zero. The question is whether we have the political will. A good demonstration of that would be having the vision to add some zeroes to NYC DOT's capital budget.