New York's Slow Zones Haven't Made Streets Safer

The city may not have done enough to actually slow down driving in its nominal slow zones.

1 minute read

June 28, 2018, 12:00 PM PDT

By Elana Eden


Speed hump

Eden, Janine and Jim / Flickr

Paris, Iceland, and London are among the jurisdictions worldwide to adopt traffic-slowing strategies in the interest of safer streets—much of the time with success. But New York's slow zone program, launched in 2011, is a different story. Researcher Jonas Hagen found that weak implementation of the city's 28 slow zones have led to a failure to reduce traffic injuries.

New York's slow zones feature largely low-impact interventions, Hagen's report notes—like speed bumps, signs, and pavement markings. Other jurisdictions have seen success with more robust measures, as David Meyer writes for Streetsblog:

The London program, which included more physical street design changes, led to a measurable reduction in severe traffic collisions … London added raised crosswalks, raised intersections, curb extensions, pedestrian refuges, traffic diverters, mini-roundabouts, and other traffic-calming measures as part of its 20 mph zone program. And these interventions are installed at five times the rate per mile of street as New York’s speed humps.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018 in StreetsBlog NYC

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