New York City residents express their dissatisfaction with Governor Kathy Hochal’s decision to change the speed limit to 20 miles per hour.
Written By: Anthony Grech
On May 9, 2024, New York State governor, Kathy Hochul signed Sammy’s Law, which grants New York City the ability to lower the speed limit from 25 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour. This law was originally created by the Families for Safe Streets Organization, which was founded by Amy Cohen. Tragically, in 2013, Cohen’s son, Sammy Cohen Ecksteine, was killed by a car in the streets of Park Slope, Brooklyn, when attempting to retrieve his soccer ball from the middle of the street. For the last decade, Cohen and the Families for Safe Streets Organization have been advocating for this speed change in order to decrease the amount of accidents and deaths in the streets of New York City.
The New York City Council must approve this law in order for it to be implemented, but Hochul feels confident that “New York City will be able to take back its streets,” according to CBS News. By reducing the speed limit, less children will fall victim to reckless driving and the number of deaths resulting from speeding collisions will decrease.
While the idea of lowering the New York City speed limit sounds promising to some, many New York City residents are angry at the sudden change. Ryan Kahn, a 25 year old resident of Bergen Beach, Brooklyn, expressed his firm disapproval of the law change. “Whether you’re in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, or the Bronx, New York City is infamous for its traffic. Lowering the speed limit will only worsen that problem and it will be a nightmare to get anywhere.” Jordana Birchfield, a 20 year old commuter student at Molloy University, as well as a resident in Marine Park, Brooklyn, also shares her disagreement with the governor’s decision. Ms. Birchfield believes that a big factor that causes these collisions and accidents is road rage. With people getting irritated, frustrated and impatient on the road, they are more likely to speed and make dangerous decisions while driving. “By lowering the speed limit, we are just giving aggressive drivers more reasons to be angry and more opportunities to lash out when driving.” These Brooklyn residents do not think that the actual speed limit is the prime cause for accidents to happen, rather the conditions of the road and the driver behind the wheel.
Francesca Zito, a 22 year old Queens resident, claims that reducing the speed limit has obvious benefits, with neighborhoods becoming safer for children to play on, however, there are a variety of problems that lay hidden in the background. Ms. Zito shared one of her experiences enduring city traffic, which almost ended in disaster. “A few weeks ago, my friend and I were driving through Manhattan
trying to get to the Lincoln Tunnel, when all of a sudden the cops shut down West 40th Street because there was too much congestion on the street,” said Ms. Zito, “then they closed down West 42nd Street, then West 44th Street, until we were finally able to turn on West 46th Street. When we went down the street to the avenue, cars were at a dead stop.” Ms. Zito claims that while she was in that traffic, one of the cars in front of her got impatient and decided to turn right into the bike lane, but when the car turned, they hit a cyclist. “It was really scary to watch. Thank goodness the boy was ok, but it could have been so much worse,” Ms. Zito said. Ms. Zito claims that this experience opened up her eyes to how dangerous driving can actually be, but not because of speeding, rather, because drivers can make reckless decisions and not pay attention to their surroundings. “Speeding had nothing to do with the accident, or even the massive traffic jam we were in. The root cause of that accident came from the irresponsible actions of the driver trying to cut through the bike lane.”
Since many New York City residents were unsatisfied with Hochul’s decision, they were asked to brainstorm better driving interventions to reduce accidents and protect pedestrians, especially children. Mr. Kahn, who believes these accidents are derivatives of traffic, thinks that the city should prioritize making the traffic lights in sync, have the police ticket double parked cars, and make more turning lights and lanes. This would eliminate a lot of the traffic in residential areas, like Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Cars would be able to drive more freely without being stuck behind turning and double parked cars. Ms. Birchfield, who believes that accidents are a result of road
rage, thinks that the city should implement more speed cameras and police oversight in busy areas. This way, there will be consequences for aggressive driving. Ms. Zito believes that there must be better traffic enforcement. Based on her experience in the city, she claims that “there was no reason for the traffic. No accidents, no construction. If the police did a better job at controlling the traffic and allowing it to flow smoothly, there would have been no reason for that car to make that dangerous maneuver.” Also, Ms. Zito believes that there needs to be better education regarding the dangers of texting and driving, as well as the dangers of drinking or smoking while driving. Drivers that are distracted or under the influence are more likely to behave irrationally and recklessly, which puts other drivers and pedestrians at risk.
New York City residents are upset at Governor Hochul’s signing of the Sammy Law, because they see first hand that speeding is not the main cause of accidents and collisions in New York City. They see how traffic, road rage, and reckless decisions affect drivers and other people in the streets, and they feel as if these issues should be more prioritized when discussing how to keep the roads safer. It is undeniable that speeding is a major cause of vehicle collisions and speeding accidents, but it is much more frequent to see drivers distracted, frustrated, and careless on the road.