Speed up the slowdown!<\/p>\n
Representatives of more than one-quarter of the city, plus more than 60 state- and city officials, are demanding that the Mamdani administration designate their neighborhoods as \u201cSlow Zones,\u201d by taking advantage of a state law that allows the mayor to reduce car speeds to 20 mph.<\/p>\n
As of this week, 17 community boards around the city, representing more than two million residents in the densest neighborhoods, have passed resolutions seeking the implemention of the so-called \u201cSammy\u2019s Law,\u201d which passed the state legislature in 2024<\/a>, but has only been implemented in one neighborhood, beyond speed-limit reductions on a handful of street segments.<\/p>\n The most recent board to pass such a resolution was on Manhattan\u2019s Upper West Side on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt shows that there\u2019s a real groundswell of support for making this happen,\u201d said Ken Coughlin, chair of the Manhattan CB7 Transportation committee. \u201cIt\u2019s sweeping the city, community board by community board.\u201d<\/p>\n Tuesday\u2019s CB7 vote came after community boards in western Queens, so-called Brownstone Brooklyn, one Bronx community board 6 and several other Manhattan boards had similarly demand 20-mile-per-hour speed limits across the entire district, not just a few blocks here and there. The Department of Transportation has carried out Sammy\u2019s Law in Manhattan south of Canal Street, before that neighborhood\u2019s community board held a vote on the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a veritable \u201cWho\u2019s Who\u201d<\/a> of elected officials has called for Mayor Mamdani to act faster to slow down car drivers, sending a letter<\/a> highlighting the need for reduced speed limits \u201cso that more New Yorkers make it home safely today, tomorrow, and for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe can\u2019t afford to wait,\u201d added the letter, which at the time was signed by four borough presidents (sorry, no Staten Island), 25 Assembly members, 12 state senators, 23 City Council members and Rep. Jerry Nadler, of national fame.<\/p>\n The letter points out that from 2022 through 2025, nearly 1,000 New Yorkers were killed and another 12,055 were seriously injured in traffic crashes \u2014\u00a0or eight serious injuries every single day.<\/p>\n Mamdani has moved more briskly than his predecessor to use Sammy\u2019s Law, increasing the number of eligible streets from 2 percent to 6 percent of the city since he took office.<\/p>\n