Council Member Hanif questions DOT on neighborhood-wide slow zones

Council Member Hani, followed by Juan.

Thank you, Chair, and hello.

Great to see everybody.

Commissioner Flynn, this is for you.

I wanted to come back to Sammy's Law.

So 17 community boards representing nearly 2.5 million New Yorkers, along with 63 elected officials, have formally...

Called for SAMHSA's law slow zones in their neighborhoods, and I'm proud to be one of those elected officials.

The city's own Vision Zero reimagined plan commits to expanding 20 mile per hour speed limits across entire neighborhoods, yet beyond the five existing SAMHSA's law slow zones,

DOT's largely limited speed reductions to short stretches in front of schools, very short stretches, I would add.

Why are we lowering speed limits block by block when entire neighborhoods are demanding safer streets?

And can you tell us what's stopping DOT from implementing neighborhood-wide slow zones and when we can expect to see them?

Thank you, Councilmember.

And yeah, I mean, first, you know, I would reiterate that we've been thrilled to see that groundswell of demand and, you know, requests from New York City neighborhoods for lower speeds.

We certainly see the value from a safety standpoint in reduced speed limits.

You know, I guess your question around the school-related ones versus area ones, I think that there's room for both.

They have, you know, somewhat different kind of goals or targets in mind.

But we are really excited about the announcing and including in Vision Zero Reimagine rolling out these lower speed zones at more of a neighborhood.

What's the timeline for that?

Well, this is an action plan.

So this is a new program.

We've just announced it.

We're developing the details of it now, but we'll be looking to roll it out starting next year.

And that would include the neighborhood-wide.

Yes.

Yes.

And could you share like what criteria is assessed in order to share which neighborhoods would be prioritized?

Yeah, I mean, I think we're kind of neck deep in developing this sizable program.

Like I mentioned earlier, you know, we want to strike a balance.

We want to, it's really helpful for us to hear from communities that are asking for it.

And at the same time, we also want to use the data to make sure that we're...

But also, you don't actually have to hear from neighborhoods to know that this needs to get done, right?

Well, that's right.

And we want to follow the data so that when we make these investments, it can have the greatest possible impact.

And so we might look at things like where we're seeing speeding, where we're seeing cut through traffic.

Anything you would add?

Yeah.

Those are some of the factors.

Crash data clearly is always kind of the baseline.

Yeah, I would just push for expedition on this issue.

Of course, having slower speed limits by school zones is necessary, but once kids are leaving the school, they're leaving that 150-foot slow zone area, and it's certainly not a substitute for a safer

neighborhood.

And so I'd love to just know more details.

Yeah, I guess the one other thing I would add is, you know, that equity is a big component as well, right?

So the new streets plan come.

We're going to have a couple months.

We'll have the new version of our priority investment areas.

And we really try to focus a lot of our investments into the historically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

So it's always a balancing act.

But we're happy to talk more and share more when we can.

And so when you say a couple months, we're talking December, we're talking January, are we talking March?

For the streets plan?

Yeah.

The deadline under the law is December 1st.

And then that plan will lay out the proposals for the neighborhood-wide slow zones?

I think we're excited to share.

It's going to have more details on a number of initiatives, some of which were in Vision Zero plan, some maybe new.

And yeah, we're excited to share more details.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member 1.