The city announced it has reduced the speed limit by 5 mph on 25 miles of nine major streets across the five boroughs with some of the highest rates of crashes — including Northern Boulevard and Rockaway Boulevard.
The change is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative, which aims to end traffic deaths and injuries on New York City streets.
Seven miles of Northern Boulevard, from 114th Street to Glenwood Street, will have a reduced speed limit from its original 30 mph to 25 mph.
Almost three miles of Rockaway Boulevard, from 150th Avenue to Third Street, will also see a reduced speed limit from the original 40 mph to the new 35 mph.
In Brooklyn, eight miles of Flatbush Avenue, four miles of Shore Parkway Service Road and less than one mile of Dahlgren Place will have reduced speed limits. In Manhattan, less than one mile of Riverside Drive will have reduced speed limits. In the Bronx, almost seven miles of Bruckner Boulevard and one mile of Webster Avenue will have reduced speed limits. Staten Island’s Targee Street will have reduced speed limits for almost two miles.
All of the speed limits will go into effect when the Department of Transportation (DOT) posts new speed-limit signage over the next four to six weeks.
Speed cameras located along those streets will be reprogrammed and will only issue warnings for the first 60 days after the new signage is posted.
DOT also announced it has reached its goal of activating speed cameras in all 750 school zones this summer, with a total of more than 950 speed cameras now active. De Blasio’s administration has set a goal of 2,000 total active cameras by the end of 2021, with some school zones permitted to have multiple cameras.
The speed camera initiative, though, has recently been called into question by the mayor’s own Surface Transportation Advisory Council.
The NYPD will continue its enforcement of speed violations — both on the highways and the local streets.
“Speeding is a leading cause of traffic fatalities. Even under COVID-19, this administration has maintained our commitment to keep our streets safe for the all users, especially the most vulnerable,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “We are reducing speed limits on some of the city’s most crash-prone corridors, and growing our speed camera program at a rate that will make our system the largest in the world. With more cameras installed in 2020 than in the first six years of the program combined, DOT is continuously working to make our streets safer for everyone.”
