New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn on Monday announced that the city will reduce the speed limit to 15mph at every eligible school location across the five boroughs by the end of the mayor's first term.
The move is designed to protect children and their families on city streets and represents the largest increase to date in the city’s use of Sammy’s Law to reduce speed limits across the city, according to officials.
More than 800 school locations will see speed limits reduced to 15mph this year, bringing the total school locations with a lower school slow zone to 1,300 by the end of the calendar year.
The administration plans to expand the 15mph slow zones to all 2,300 school locations across the five boroughs by the end of Mamdani’s first term. Implementation will be prioritized based on available safety data and other planned street safety improvements, officials said.
“Families spoke up after unimaginable loss to fight for Sammy’s Law and deliver our city the power to make our streets safer for New Yorkers,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Today’s expansion of Slow Zones for schools across all five boroughs is just the beginning. Lower speeds save lives, and we will use every tool at our disposal to protect our neighbors as they move about our city.”
A pedestrian struck at 25mph is more than three times as likely to be seriously injured than a pedestrian struck at 15mph, officials said.
At each school, the DOT will provide the mandatory 60-day notice and comment opportunity to the local community board before implementation of the new speed limit. At the most dangerous locations near schools, the agency will continue to focus on upgrading street and intersection designs to help naturally slow vehicles and improve safety, including elements like speed humps, hardened daylighting and other safety upgrades.
“Sammy’s Law will save lives wherever it is implemented,” said Amy Cohen, founder and president of Families for Safe Streets. “In 2013, my 12-year-old son Sammy was struck and killed by a speeding driver in Brooklyn, and ever since, I’ve been fighting for safer speeds on our streets."
