{"id":343273,"date":"2026-09-10T22:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/343273\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T22:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:20:13","slug":"more-than-2300-schools-are-less-than-a-quarter-mile-from-nycs-50-boulevards-of-death-advocates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/343273\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 2,300 schools are less than a quarter-mile from NYC\u2019s 50 \u2018Boulevards of Death\u2019: advocates"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 50 most dangerous arterial roads in New York City are collectively within a quarter-mile of over 2,300 schools and child care centers, according to a new report from a pair of street safety advocacy groups.<\/p>\n

The report, authored by the organizations Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets, lists the city\u2019s 50 thoroughfares where they found the highest number of traffic deaths and serious injuries occurred between the beginning of 2022 and the end of last year. The group branded the roads \u201cboulevards of death,\u201d which they define as arterial streets with high volumes of pedestrians, bike riders, or drivers who have either been killed or seriously injured on them.<\/p>\n

Raul Ampuero, a Families for Safe Streets member whose 9-year-old son was hit and killed by a driver on Queens\u2019 Northern Boulevard in 2018,<\/a> one of the 50 boulevards of death, said that streets need to be redesigned to prevent more young children like his son from being mowed down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese streets are deadly; they\u2019re killing our children, and yet they remain unchanged for years or decades,\u201d Ampuero said in a statement. \u201cThe best time to fix Northern Boulevard was before my son was killed, but the next best time is now, before we lose another neighbor to a traffic crash.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A map of the \u2018boulevards of death\u2019 the advocacy groups Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets identified in a new report.Image Courtesy of Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets<\/p>\n

The groups released their report as the city\u2019s over 900,000 public school students returned to class from summer break on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs New York City\u2019s students return to school, my thoughts are with my son, who deserved to go to middle school and high school like the rest of his classmates,\u201d Ampuero said.\n<\/p>\n

Hundreds of deaths on NYC\u2019s most dangerous streets near schools
\n\"trafficA school speed limit sign on a Queens street. (Photo by David Pozarycki)<\/p>\n

The streets identified in the report saw 212 deaths and 2,482 serious injuries from traffic crashes over the four-year period it covers, according to the analysis. More than one in five deaths and serious injuries occurred on the deadly arterials, even though they make up just 4% of the city\u2019s road miles.<\/p>\n

The boulevards of death span all five boroughs. They include: the Bronx\u2019s Jerome Avenue, Brooklyn\u2019s Eastern Parkway, Manhattan\u2019s West 125th Street, Queens\u2019 Broadway, and Staten Island\u2019s Bay Street. Those roads saw 19, 22, 25, 14, and 9 deaths or serious injuries per mile over the four years analyzed by the groups respectively.<\/p>\n

Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Ben Furnas said making the wide roads safer will require the city Department of Transportation to narrow them by shortening crossing distances, cutting down the width of traffic lanes, installing protected bike lanes, and allowing fewer cars and trucks to traverse them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to bring attention and resources to the next generation of \u2018Boulevards of Death\u2019 to ensure our deadliest streets get the upgrades they need before another New Yorker is lost,\u201d Furnas said. \u201cJust last week, a pedestrian was hit and killed by a driver on one of these new Boulevards of Death: Boston Road in the Bronx. This New Yorker died in the hospital \u2014 killed by a driver just for trying to cross the street.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A graphic showing how few of the city\u2019s road miles newly identified \u2018boulevards of death\u2019 account for compared to the high concentration of deaths and serious injuries on them.Photo courtesy of Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets<\/p>\n

The groups are recommending that the DOT fast-track street safety improvements as well as aggressively begin implementing Sammy\u2019s Law,<\/a> which allows it to lower speed limits to 20 miles per hour on most streets and 15 mph in school zones.<\/p>\n

The city has already made overtures toward implementing Sammy\u2019s Law near public schools. Earlier this year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani pledged to use the law to lower speed limits to 15 mph on 800 streets adjacent to schools earlier this year.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 50 most dangerous arterial roads in New York City are collectively within a quarter-mile of over 2,300…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[128690,27810,128691,6157,22428,22925,9,56,63,65,64,128692,51050,21992],"class_list":["post-343273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-15-mile-per-hour-speed-limit","tag-ben-furnas","tag-boulevards-of-death","tag-dot","tag-families-for-safe-streets","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-raul-ampuero","tag-sammys-law","tag-transportation-alternatives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343273","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=343273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}