Mayor Adams Wants New Yorkers to Slow Down on Road

By COLlive reporter

Slow down!

That’s the message New York Mayor Eric Adams is telling fellow residents in an effort to combat what his office labeled “rising traffic violence,” with speeding the dangerous driving occurring at higher rates since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adams and NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez announced they plan to invest $900 million in traffic safety and plan to redesign key intersections across five boroughs.

It is the city’s largest and most concentrated investment in public awareness since the start of Vision Zero in 2014. The campaign ads and video show a man, woman and a cyclist being thrown in the air as a result of a collision, showing the effect of driving faster than permitted.

The campaign — titled “Speeding Ruins Lives, Slow Down” — also represents the largest education effort targeted at community and ethnic media with a $1.5 million commitment, helping to reach a range of communities across the five boroughs, including communities of color that disproportionately suffer as a result of traffic violence.

VIDEO: The campaign ad (disturbing depiction)

“Traffic safety is public safety, and today we are continuing to take action against traffic violence,” said Adams. “This unprecedented campaign will reach New Yorkers across the five boroughs in nine languages with one message: Slow down. And we are going to do all we can to focus on the ultimate goal of Vision Zero and eliminate traffic fatalities.”

“Over the next two months, New Yorkers will see for themselves the horrible aftermath of driving too fast,” said DOT Commissioner Rodriguez. “This campaign will be unprecedented in the extent of its outreach: It will be in more communities, cover more community and ethnic media, and speak to New Yorkers in nine different languages. We thank the mayor for his support and leadership as we use all the tools in the toolbox to fight this traffic violence crisis.”

The new effort follows Mayor Adams’ grand investment of more than $900 million in street safety as part of his fiscal year 2023 executive budget.

Adams also announced a plan to redesign 1,000 intersections across New York City to protect pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers, and he has led a coalition of partners urging Albany to give New York City local control of automated enforcement, a tool proven to reduce dangerous driving.

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) continues to increase its enforcement of speeding and reckless driving in areas where fatalities are occurring.

In the 28-day period ending April 24, 2022, the NYPD issued 47.4 percent more summonses for all hazardous conditions on New York City’s roads than in the same period in 2021.

The NYPD also issued 54.6 percent more summonses in that period than in the same period last year, including a 322 percent increase in East New York’s 75th precinct, and they have issued five percent more speeding summonses citywide in the first four months of 2022 than they had at this point last year.

“Speeding and reckless driving behavior puts everyone on New York City’s roads at risk, and eradicating it remains at the core of the NYPD’s intelligence-driven traffic safety policies,” said NYPD Chief of Transportation Kim Royster.

“We have stepped up enforcement on highways where data shows a rise in injuries and fatal collisions. Across the NYPD, we have focused relentlessly on drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians and cyclists at intersections. And we have continued to conduct Vision Zero high-visibility corridor enforcement and education operations, which strategically deploy personnel to carry out traffic enforcement and education in areas of the city where it is needed most: those locations with a high number of vulnerable road users hurt in traffic collisions. The NYPD’s layered approach reinforces our core philosophy that traffic safety is public safety — a philosophy that drives enforcement across all our police precincts and at our weekly traffic safety forum meetings.”

“Getting around town by two wheels or two heels is the healthiest way to travel, but we need motorists to do their part to keep our roads safe for everyone,” said New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan. “This is a great campaign to keep safety at the front of drivers’ minds.”

VIDEO: Mayor Eric Adams Makes Transportation-Related Announcement