With state authority to lower speed limits freshly in hand, authority the city never should’ve had to beg for in the first place, New York City is beginning to lower speed limits to 20 mph. Godspeed — or should we say, Godslowdown.
Last week, following through on the promise of the passage of Sammy’s Law, the city’s Department of Transportation started setting new maximum speeds for stretches of street that need them the most. First up is a 19-block stretch from Grand Army Plaza to Bartel-Pritchard Square, the very same area where 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein was killed in 2013. Next up are stretches of road in lower Manhattan and along Audubon Ave. uptown.
What ought to inform each DOT decision is data, not politics. Policymakers should look at where cars actually speed the most and where they hit pedestrians the most.
Studies are clear on this: When the speed of cars and trucks is reduced from 30 mph to 20 mph, lives are saved and injuries are averted. Research shows that the average risk of death for a pedestrian is about 10% at an impact speed of 23 mph, 25% at 32 mph, 50% at 42 mph and 75% at 50 mph.
Speaking of which, the sweeping set of traffic safety strategies known as Vision Zero, which among other things lowered the general city speed limit to 25 mph, have been in effect for a decade now. Though streets are not safer by every measure, pedestrian fatalities have largely been moving in the right direction.
New York City ended 2023 with the fewest pedestrians killed since people started keeping track more than a century ago (not counting 2020, an anomalous year upended by COVID). This is even more remarkable given that across the country as a whole, pedestrian fatalities are moving in exactly the opposite direction.
That said, the first half of 2024 saw an uptick in pedestrian fatalities and especially bad numbers for traffic violence overall.
How to make streets still safer beyond lowering speed limits to 20 mph where it counts?
The DOT must keep redesigning streets and crossings. Too many still put the needs of heavy cars and trucks first rather than prioritizing especially vulnerable walkers and bicyclists. That should include “daylighting” more intersections — meaning, barring parked cars and other obstacles at corners from preventing people from easily seeing who’s coming around the bend.
It should use technology smartly to automate speed and traffic enforcement. Sure, some drivers hate the fact that cameras can catch them breaking the law almost anywhere at almost any time, but that’s the way it should be when lives are at stake. With the state’s permission (that again), the city is already quadrupling the number of red-light cameras and rolling out more mobile speed cameras. It ought to look for ever more opportunities to catch bad drivers — and then hold them accountable when they repeatedly break the law.
Not least, the city, the state and the federal government should work together to address the fact that increasingly heavy vehicles with large blind spots make it especially dangerous for people. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has been pushing to require automatic emergency braking on many more vehicles; it’ll be standard equipment by late 2029. It’s never too late to save lives.