City Council

The City Council transportation committee met today to gather testimony on NYPD hit-and-run crash investigations, but NYPD didn't send anyone to the hearing. The committee also took up a bill that would codify updates to DOT's innovative Street Design Manual.

A City Council effort to lower speed limits to 20 miles per hour on residential streets citywide has been dropped in favor of a bill that would set limits at 25 mph on narrow one-way streets.

The election of numerous safe streets candidates earlier this month, followed by the exoneration of road-raging cabbie Faysal Himon and the gut-wrenching parade of daily traffic deaths since, create the best opportunity in years to impose meaningful consequences for sober reckless driving.

WNYC has put together a map showing that the majority of streets in New York City are close to a school -- meaning that, according to state law, the speed limit on those streets can be lowered to 20 miles per hour without Albany's approval:

A major taxi medallion owners' group has come out in favor of the bill to lower speed limits to 20 miles per hour on residential streets citywide.

City Council reps and members of the public spoke unanimously today in support of a bill to lower speed limits to a life-saving 20 miles per hour in neighborhoods citywide. But if the council adopts the measure, it will do so over the objection of DOT, which said the proposal would create conflicts with state law.

Tomorrow, the City Council transportation committee is holding a hearing on a bill sponsored by Council Member David Greenfield that would lower the speed limit on most residential streets to 20 mph. The bill has been welcomed by advocates, but there are some legal questions to keep an eye on during testimony tomorrow morning.

Ride a bike on a sidewalk in New York City and you are subject not only to a traffic ticket, but a criminal summons. Amazingly, there is no commensurate penalty for the curb-jumping motorist, despite the potential to inflict far greater harm, and countless deaths and injuries that occur every year. Unless intoxication is a factor, prosecutions are rare -- even for crashes that result in death -- possibly in part because the act of driving on a city sidewalk is itself not a crime.

Yesterday, New York City Democrats chose the candidate who's campaigned as the anti-Bloomberg. But on issues of traffic safety and surface transit, Bill de Blasio, despite some wavering, has pledged to build on the current administration's progress while tackling the unfinished business of reforming the NYPD's approach to traffic violence. And with several City Council candidates endorsed by the newly-formed StreetsPAC winning hotly contested primaries, the results of last night's election bode well for livable streets in NYC over the next four years. As StreetsPAC board member Eric McClure put it, "It's clear from the results of the primary that support for safe and complete streets has gone mainstream."