Traffic Calming
Streetsblog Basics
Applications for 20 MPH Zones Pour in From the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens
The deadline to apply to NYC DOT for a neighborhood slow zone is tomorrow, and groups from many different corners of New York are making their case for bringing a 20 mph speed limit and traffic calming measures to their neighborhoods.
February 2, 2012
Adding Neighborhood 20 MPH Zones Isn’t a Zero-Sum Game
The Brooklyn Paper ran one of its trademark neighbor-vs.-neighbor stories today, turning a weekend public workshop about implementing a 20 mph zone in Park Slope into an occasion for more conflict-driven reporting:
January 24, 2012
CB 2 Committee Asks DOT to Study Lafayette Avenue Bike Lane
It only took Hilda Cohen and Ali Loxton ten weeks to collect 1,600 signatures supporting a traffic-calming redesign, including a bike lane, for Brooklyn's Lafayette Avenue. Yesterday evening they took their petition to the transportation committee of Community Board 2 and made their case. The result: a 9-1 committee vote asking DOT to study Cohen and Loxton's proposal.
January 18, 2012
Safety Fix at Prospect Park Entrance Projected to Prevent 10 Injuries a Year
After years of neighborhood activism, the Department of Transportation plans to install much-needed safety improvements at the dangerous intersection of Ocean Avenue and Parkside Avenue, at the southeast corner of Prospect Park. By closing a park entrance to automobiles, DOT will simplify the intersection and shrink the space dedicated to traffic, preventing an estimated ten injuries per year [PDF].
December 8, 2011
Neighborhood Slow Zone Opens in Claremont, Perhaps the First of Many
The city's first "neighborhood slow zone" officially opened this morning, bringing a 20 mph speed limit and new traffic calming treatments to the residential Claremont neighborhood in the Bronx. Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, joined by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., City Council Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca and local District Manager John Dudley, announced that the 20 mph zones would soon be coming to neighborhoods across the city. Starting today, residents and community boards can apply for their own slow zone.
November 21, 2011
London Asks Would-Be Mayors For 20 MPH Speeds — What Should NYC Ask For?
Across London, 20 mph zones combine a lower speed limit with physical street engineering and camera enforcement to create pockets of safety across the city. According to the British Medical Journal, serious traffic injuries and fatalities have fallen by 46 percent within the zones; 27 fewer Londoners are killed or seriously injured each year because of the zones. Now, street safety advocates are looking to join those neighborhood-sized zones with signage-only 20 mph speed limits on connecting streets.
September 9, 2011
Rewind: The Taming and Reclaiming of Prospect Park West
It's been nearly a year since we first ran Robin Urban Smith's Streetfilm on the Prospect Park West redesign. A lot has happened since then, but the lane is working as well as ever and I can't think of a better way to wrap up this important day for NYC street safety policy than to have another look at this video of DOT's work in action.
August 17, 2011
Workshop Offers Few Strong Ideas for Deadly Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd.
Big ideas were in short supply at a workshop held Wednesday night to develop a badly-needed safety plan for Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard. This year alone, three pedestrians have been killed in traffic crashes along the 100-foot wide avenue, but many of the workshop participants seemed focused on making it easier to drive through Central Harlem, not on saving lives. In an area where fewer than a quarter of households even own a car, more voices need to be brought into this discussion.
July 29, 2011
First NYC 20 MPH Zone to Slow Cars With Gateway Neckdowns, Speed Humps
Last month DOT announced plans for the city's first 20 mph zone, located in the Claremont section of the Bronx. The agency's presentation to the local community board is now online [PDF], so you can see how DOT plans to implement the slow zone strategy in what could be the first of several neighborhoods. The approach is low-cost but should be effective: Every entrance to the area will be marked with a highly visible "gateway" announcing the reduced speed limit, and the neighborhood will be blanketed with regularly-spaced speed humps.
June 29, 2011
Advocates: Ethical Standards Demand Zero Tolerance for Traffic Deaths
Traffic deaths need to be treated as an ethical imperative to save lives, said representatives from Transportation Alternatives, the Drum Major Institute, and the medical community today at the public release of the new report, "Vision Zero" [PDF].
June 8, 2011