{"id":346210,"date":"2026-09-14T11:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T11:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/346210\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T11:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T11:30:09","slug":"fixing-boulevards-of-death-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/346210\/","title":{"rendered":"Fixing \u2018Boulevards of Death\u2019 in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

FILE \u2013 An NYC Department of Transportation worker changes a speed limit sign in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

NYC DOT<\/p>\n

Queens Boulevard was once dubbed by tabloids as the \u201cboulevard of death\u201d because of the numerous crashes and collisions along the major Queens artery that killed dozens of pedestrians.\n<\/p>\n

After many reports and public outcry over the propensity for deadly pedestrian collisions, in 2015, the city went to work installing all kinds of safety features along Queens Boulevard both to slow drivers down and to prevent jaywalking \u2014 from expanding parking lanes, to adding protected bike lanes, to retiming crosswalk signals to give pedestrians more time to walk across the wide roadway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The effort worked; by 2024, the city Department of Transportation<\/a> reported a 68% decrease in traffic-related fatalities along Queens Boulevard. Pedestrian injuries had also plummeted by 35% over those nine years.<\/p>\n

But as the city moved heaven and earth to solve the \u201cboulevard of death,\u201d the street safety groups Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets say 50 other \u201cboulevards of death\u201d around New York City require immediate action<\/a> to protect the lives of pedestrians and cyclists \u2014 and especially children.<\/p>\n

In a damning report released last week as the city\u2019s schools reopened, the groups pointed out that more than 2,300 schools are located within a quarter-mile of the 50 most dangerous roadways in New York City.<\/p>\n

These streets\u00a0 \u2014 including Queens\u2019 Northern Boulevard, Bronx\u2019s Jerome Avenue, Brooklyn\u2019s Eastern Parkway, Manhattan\u2019s West 125th Street, and Staten Island\u2019s Bay Street \u2014 comprise just 9% of the total lane miles in New York City, yet had 21% of all street deaths and serious injuries between 2022 and 2025.<\/p>\n

All 50 \u201cboulevards of death,\u201d as identified in the report, saw 212 fatalities and 2,482 serious injuries from traffic crashes over those four years.\n<\/p>\n

The groups say that the city can take action to save more lives on these dangerous roadways by fast-tracking improvements similar to what was brought to Queens Boulevard, and lowering the citywide speed limit to 20 mph on most roadways, and 15 mph in school zones.<\/p>\n

The Mamdani administration should listen to these groups and take appropriate action, based on the needs of the communities on each road targeted in the report. Not every road is Queens Boulevard, so merely replicating what is there on every other \u201cboulevard of death\u201d in the city is not the answer.<\/p>\n

A combination of measures designed to keep pedestrians, cyclists and drivers safe ought to be considered and acted upon in the months to come. The city must be careful not to enact changes that cause an adverse impact on businesses along these strips; still, we believe that, with proper outreach, it can achieve maximum street safety with minimal impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE \u2013 An NYC Department of Transportation worker changes a speed limit sign in Brooklyn. NYC DOT Queens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[129616,304,9,56,63,129617,65,64,2023,142,21992],"class_list":["post-346210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-dangerous-roadways","tag-editorial","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-department-of-tranportation","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-traffic","tag-transit","tag-transportation-alternatives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346210","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=346210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}