{"id":165493,"date":"2026-03-16T22:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T22:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/165493\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T22:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T22:07:08","slug":"school-slowdown-nyc-to-drop-speed-limit-to-15mph-in-800-school-zones-by-end-of-year-mamdani-pledges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/165493\/","title":{"rendered":"School slowdown: NYC to drop speed limit to 15mph in 800 school zones by end of year, Mamdani pledges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Mayor\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani stands with DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn, other elected officials, and advocates as he announces plan to lower speed limits to 15 miles per hour at 800 school zones by the end of this year. Monday, March 16, 2025.<\/p>\n

Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

New York City will reduce speed limits around over 800 public school locations to 15 miles per hour by the end of this year in a bid to make streets safer for children across the five boroughs, Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> announced on Monday.<\/p>\n

The mayor, during a March 16 press conference at Queens\u2019 Flushing International High School, said the Department of Transportation (DOT)<\/a> will proceed with lowering the speed limit to 15 mph at the 700 school locations where it currently stands at 20 mph. Additionally, he said the DOT will do the same at 100 school zones with 25 mph speed limits.<\/p>\n

Those changes will bring the number of school zones where vehicle speeds are capped at that threshold to 1,300 by the end of this year, according to City Hall.\n<\/p>\n

Mamdani also pledged to install 15 mph speed limits at all of the city\u2019s 2,300 eligible school zones by the time his first term concludes in 2029.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNo longer will the lives of pedestrians and children playing outside be treated as an afterthought,\u201d Mamdani said as he stood with other elected officials and advocates in the school\u2019s gymnasium.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we serve the people of this city, we will keep them safe by implementing the laws designed to protect them,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n

The DOT said it will choose which school locations to prioritize for speed limit reductions by reviewing data to identify the most dangerous areas.\n<\/p>\n

Why advocates say a lower speed limit near NYC schools matters
\n\"DOTFILE \u2013 An NYC Department of Transportation worker changes a speed limit sign in Brooklyn.NYC DOT<\/p>\n

Safe streets advocates have long pushed for lowering speed limits around the city as a key way to reduce the likelihood of traffic deaths and injuries. According to the DOT, pedestrians hit by a vehicle moving at 25 mph are three times more likely to be injured than those struck at 15 mph.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere that has lowered speed limits has seen an increase in safety and a decrease in people being hit and killed,\u201d said Elizabeth Adams, deputy director of the group Transportation Alternatives. \u201cThe facts are clear, lower speed limits work and they make our neighborhoods safer. They should be non-negotiable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city has the power to lower speed limits in school zones to 15 mph after advocates successfully\u00a0passed state legislation, named\u00a0Sammy\u2019s Law,<\/a>\u00a0in 2024<\/a>. The measure also allows the city to lower speed limits on streets outside of school zones to 20 mph.<\/p>\n

Yet\u00a0during the first full year the law was in effect under former Mayor Eric Adams, the city\u00a0used it to lower speed limits on only <\/a>2% of eligible roads<\/a>, according to advocates.<\/p>\n

The law was named for Sammy Cohen Eckstein, a 12-year-old boy who was killed by a speeding driver in a Brooklyn crosswalk in 2013. His mother, Amy Cohen, is one of the co-founders of the group Families for Safe Streets, which has successfully pushed for a slew of policy changes to reduce traffic injuries and deaths over the past several years.<\/p>\n

Fabiola Mendieta-Cuapio, the group\u2019s New York co-chair, whose 5-year-old son Brian was also killed by a speeding driver, said, \u201cThis is about every kid, who tries to go to the park, who tries to go to the school, who tries to go to the city\u2026this is about every single kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor, Council differ on authority to reduce all other speed limits<\/p>\n

While Mamdani pledged to expand Sammy\u2019s Law, he insisted that he cannot implement a citywide speed limit reduction without a change to the city\u2019s administrative code, which must be passed by the City Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is, from our Law Department\u2019s assessment, that in order to change the citywide speed limit in one fell swoop, that requires a local administrative change to the city administrative code,\u201d he said. \u201cNow that is a change that I would support; it is, however, a change that goes beyond what City Hall can do in and of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaders of the City Council, however, disputed Mamdani\u2019s claim, insisting the mayor already has the power to lower speed limits citywide.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cStreet safety is a priority for Speaker Menin and the Council. While a bill to lower the citywide speed limit has not yet been introduced, under Sammy\u2019s Law, the NYC Department of Transportation already has the authority to lower the speed limit in specific locations,\u201d said Julia Agos, a Council spokesperson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani stands with DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn, other elected officials, and advocates as he announces plan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[67970,67971,22428,22925,9,1310,56,63,65,64,41389,51050,67972,21992],"class_list":["post-165493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-amy-cohen","tag-elizabeth-adams","tag-families-for-safe-streets","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-department-of-transportation","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-sammy-cohen-eckstein","tag-sammys-law","tag-school-zone-speed-limits","tag-transportation-alternatives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}