Yesterday, we testified at the New York City Council Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure's oversight hearing on Vision Zero. The hearing was billed as an evaluation of the city's street-safety strategy, and came six weeks after the Mamdani administration released Vision Zero Reimagined, its blueprint for building on the city's original 2014 Vision Zero plan. The hearing also covered several pieces of legislation, including Intro 1070-2026, Committee Chair Shaun Abreu's bill that would create a pilot program for low-traffic neighborhoods, and Intro 1153-2026, sponsored by Brooklyn Council Member Kayla Santosuosso, which would implement the "Stop Super Speeders" program authorized this year by the state legislature.

Our full testimony follows below.

New York City has had a Vision Zero strategy since 2014. In fact, Bill de Blasio earned StreetsPAC’s initial mayoral endorsement in 2013 largely based on his embrace of Vision Zero.

But while the city has made progress toward zero traffic deaths over the ensuing dozen years, we still have a long, long way to go. A New Yorker is killed in a traffic crash about every 44 hours, on average, and many times that number are injured, often in life-altering ways.

Today marks five years and a day since this committee held an oversight hearing entitled “Rethinking Vision Zero.” We testified that day that “Vision Zero doesn’t so much need to be ‘rethought’ as it needs to be properly implemented, with a much greater emphasis on street design” that can “markedly reduce the frequency and severity of crashes.”

To be sure, we have made advances in design, and the present administration has shown a commitment to change that its Vision Zero-era predecessors did not. But to really put a dent in traffic deaths and serious injuries, we need a bold new Streets Plan and a laser-focused, safety-first approach. To that end, we urge the following steps.

Implement Sammy’s Law across the city. Albany granted us the right to lower speed limits more than a year ago, but we’ve only reduced speeds on a tiny fraction of eligible streets. One-third of the city’s Community Boards have formally asked for Sammy’s Law implementation, and we shouldn’t keep them waiting. A key piece of this is the creation of low-traffic neighborhoods.

Focus on the most dangerous arterials and intersections. While the designation of Vision Zero Priority Corridors is a worthy effort, it hasn’t put a big enough dent in the problem of poorly designed streets. The scope of the effort must be expanded, and implemented more quickly.

Implement universal hardened daylighting. A high proportion of fatal crashes occur at intersections, because that is where interactions between pedestrians and drivers are most frequent. The city’s pledge to daylight 1,000 intersections a year is a good start, but we should again aim for more, and sooner.

Establish the “Stop Super Speeders” program authorized by Albany ASAP. Keeping the city’s worst speeding offenders from endangering other New Yorkers must be a top priority for the City Council. Legislation mandating the installation of intelligent speed assistance devices in the vehicles of repeat dangerous drivers should be moved with all due haste by the Council, and enacted into law at the earliest opportunity.

Mandate sideguards for all trucks operating in New York City. Sideguards are proven to prevent pedestrians and cyclists from being run over by trucks. We should require any truck traveling city streets to have life-saving sideguards installed, without exemptions.

Focus enforcement where it will have the greatest safety impact. The drop in enforcement actions by the NYPD over the past several years is well documented. But while we can all agree that the proliferation of e-micromobility devices can make streets feel chaotic, it’s people driving cars and trucks who are causing the overwhelming share of deaths and injuries. NYPD needs to commit to focusing on dangerous moving violations, and to cracking down in a meaningful way on fake or obscured license plates.

Intro 1070-2026 – Support

We strongly support Majority Leader Abreu’s Intro 1070, which would establish a low-traffic neighborhood pilot program. LTN’s have proved effective, and politically popular, in peer cities like London. They reduce cut-through traffic through simple design interventions, preserve access for emergency vehicles, city services, and residents, and can be implemented with little to no parking reduction.

Intro 1153-2026 – Support

We also strongly support Council Member Santosuosso’s Intro 1153, which would create a demonstration program for intelligent speed assistance devices, thus operationalizing the “Stop Super Speeders” law passed in Albany earlier this year. A small number of drivers account for an inordinate number of dangerous speeding violations; Intro 1153 will mandate that every owner of a vehicle used to commit 16 school-zone speeding violations within a 12-month period must install ISA devices in every vehicle they own. ISA devices don’t take away someone’s driving privileges – they curtail a person’s ability to drive dangerously.

Intro 0613-2026 – Support

While Council Member Joseph’s Intro 613 is clearly aspirational, we believe 100 miles of protected bike lanes annually is a not-unreasonable benchmark for growing the city’s cycling network. The next iteration of the Streets Plan, due by year end, should set ambitious targets for Class 1 lanes. A bike-lane network is only as good as its strongest links, and we should strive for world-class infrastructure.

Resolution 0687-2026 – Support

We support Resolution 687, which urges the passage and enactment of the state Drag Racing and Speeding Enforcement Act, legislation that would assign five driver’s license points to persons convicted of participating in speed contests and races. Such events are a scourge that endanger drivers and bystanders alike.