Speed kills. City Hall knows it. Albany knows it. The families burying New Yorkers know it best.

Already this year: 75 dead and 898 seriously injured on New York City streets, from Jan 1, 2026 to May 10, 2026. These are not “accidents.” They are the price of streets built for speed and politics built for delay.

NYC DOT tells drivers that a pedestrian struck at 30 MPH is twice as likely to be killed as one struck at 25 MPH. That is the whole fight in one sentence: slower cars mean more people live.

Albany passed Sammy’s Law. New York City can lower most streets to 20 MPH, and some redesigned streets to 10 MPH. So stop treating 20 MPH as a pilot. Make it the rule on every street where the law allows it, and make City Hall defend every street it leaves faster.

What To Demand Now

  1. 20 MPH as the norm on every street Sammy’s Law covers.
  2. A borough-by-borough rollout schedule, with the worst corridors first.
  3. A Stop Super Speeders program that actually slows the worst drivers.
  4. Low-traffic neighborhoods in every borough.

Demand 20 MPH on Eligible Streets

DOT has started lowering limits in selected locations. Good. Not enough. A few slow zones will not stop the next driver from turning a neighborhood street into a speedway.

NYC needs a citywide rule: 20 MPH wherever Sammy’s Law allows it. Publish the schedule. Publish the streets left out. Start where people are already being killed and maimed.

Call your Council Member. Contact the Mayor. Contact DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn.

Your message:

“Sammy’s Law gave NYC the power to set safer speeds. Use it everywhere it applies: make 20 MPH the norm on eligible streets, publish a rollout schedule, explain exceptions publicly, and start with the high-injury corridors in my neighborhood.”

Victory: Speed Cameras Renewed

Albany renewed NYC’s 24-hour school-zone speed-camera program through July 1, 2030. That was a win. Now use it as a floor, not a finish line. Cameras catch the speeding. Sammy’s Law lowers the speed. Stop Super Speeders goes after the drivers who keep doing it anyway.

Protect the Stop Super Speeders Win

NYC DOT’s data is damning: a driver with 16 speed-camera violations in one year is twice as likely to be involved in a crash causing severe injury or death. More than 20 violations means five times the risk. Thirty or more means 50 times the risk.

Albany put Stop Super Speeders in the final budget agreement. Now comes the part where good bills go to die: rulemaking, exemptions, delays, and quiet carve-outs. Do not let that happen. The trigger should stay clear: 16 or more speed-camera violations in 12 months. The result should be just as clear: install intelligent speed assistance and slow the car down.

Call your own State Senator and Assembly Member (look them up below) and say:

“Do not let the Stop Super Speeders budget win get weakened in implementation. Keep the 16 speed-camera-violation trigger, require intelligent speed assistance for the worst repeat speeders, publish the rules quickly, and report publicly on installations, exemptions, and outcomes.”

Build Low-Traffic Neighborhoods Across NYC

Lower speed limits help. Street design finishes the job. Low-traffic neighborhoods stop drivers from using residential blocks as shortcuts while keeping access for residents, deliveries, sanitation, transit, and emergency response.

The record is not subtle. London built LTNs at scale; road casualties inside them fell 50%, with no increase on boundary roads. Median traffic inside LTNs fell from 1,200 vehicles a day to 650, while boundary roads saw no median increase. Fire response times did not get worse. That is the ballgame: fewer cars blasting through side streets, fewer people hurt, emergency access intact.

The peer-reviewed injury study is even blunter: after 72 London LTNs went in, injuries inside the neighborhoods roughly halved, pedestrian injuries fell hardest, and boundary roads did not pay the price. A separate fire-service study looked at more than 122,000 London Fire Brigade incidents and found no evidence LTNs slowed first or second engines.

This is not just crash math. LTNs cut noise, cut pollution, and give neighborhood streets back to the people who live there. In one London air-quality study, nitrogen dioxide fell 5.7% inside LTNs and 8.9% on boundary roads, while traffic volumes dropped both inside the zones and at the edge. The panic story is backwards: the danger is the cut-through traffic we keep allowing.

NYC already knows the tools: diverters, one-way conversions, turn restrictions, daylighting. What it has not done is put them together, neighborhood by neighborhood, and take cut-through traffic seriously as a safety problem. That is the next citywide design fight.

Tell the City Council, Mayor, and DOT:

“Launch a citywide low-traffic-neighborhood strategy: pilots in every borough, equity-first siting in high-injury communities, emergency and delivery access preserved, and transparent public reporting on traffic, pollution, emergency response, and injuries.”

Join Forces, Amplify Your Impact

Groups fighting for safer speeds:

  • Transportation Alternatives: Join citywide efforts, volunteer locally, and amplify campaigns for safer streets.
  • Families for Safe Streets: Stand with survivors and advocate fiercely for policies that prevent tragedy.
  • Open Plans: Organizing citywide for low-traffic neighborhoods and safer, calmer residential streets.

Don’t Wait for Another Tragedy

The numbers haunt us because they used to be names.

Lower speeds. Save lives.

Act today.

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Tags: traffic safety, speed limit, speed cameras, advocacy, Sammy's Law