A Manhattan lawmaker wants to give NYC the power to reduce speed limits on city streets, amid a surge in reckless driving that’s contributed to the highest number of traffic fatalities in six years.
As it is with many issues, the city's ability to curb speeding is currently constrained by state law, which mandates speed limits on most roads not be set below 25 miles per hour, or 15 mph in school zones. The requirement "makes absolutely no sense," according to State Senator Brad Hoylman, who plans to introduce legislation this week that would repeal the long-standing limitation. NYC was only able to lower its speed limit to 25 mph after Albany passed legislation permitting the change in 2014.
"Giving New York City home rule over lowering speed limits seems like an issue that's way past due," Hoylman told Gothamist.
"Reducing traffic speed is not only critical due to the rising number of traffic fatalities," he added, "but also because of increased car use, bike ridership and outdoor dining and shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Even as the total miles driven on city streets has dropped as a result of the pandemic, reports of speeding and drag racing have soared. In the first ten months of this year, the city's automatic speed cameras issued 3.7 million tickets to drivers — more than double the total over the same period last year, according to city data.
Transportation experts believe those high-speed drivers are largely to blame for the growing death count on city streets; as of Sunday, there have been 224 road fatalities in NYC this year, up 11 percent from 2019.
“People got in the habit of driving too fast and too recklessly when roads were more open, and unfortunately, we’re still seeing that behavior,” Polly Trottenberg, the city's outgoing transportation commissioner, told the Times in September.
To combat the scourge of speeding, the DOT recently announced the reduction of speed limits on 9 arterial roadways, spanning more than 25 miles. In most cases, speed limits were reduced from 30 mph to 25 mph.
Hoylman's bill — dubbed Sammy's Law, after Samuel Cohen-Eckstein, a 12-year-old boy killed by a speeding driver in 2013 — would allow the city to go even further, curtailing top speeds on problematic streets to any number they choose, regardless of state approval.
A draft of the legislation points to a 2011 study, which found that 30 percent of pedestrians struck at an impact speed of 25 mph sustained serious injuries; by comparison, only 9 percent of those struck by drivers traveling below 15 mph were seriously injured, and less 5 percent were killed.
“Our family knows all too well that speed kills," said Joan Dean, a member of Families for Safe Streets and the grandmother of Cohen-Eckstein. "Going just a little slower can be the difference between life and death, particularly for those walking and biking on our streets."
A spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio's office deferred comment to the DOT, which said they were still reviewing the legislation.
