Traffic safety advocates hailed a new law that would allow the Big Apple to lower speed limits on city streets to 16 mph.
The bill, dubbed “Sammy’s Law” in memory of 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein, who was fatally hit by a van near her Park Slope home in 2013, is part of the state budget. It was passed last month.
“This is a happy but bittersweet moment,” Cohen-Eckstein’s mother, Amy Cohen, said Thursday at a news conference in Manhattan with Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
“Sammy was fierce and determined. Just weeks before he passed away, he was the youngest person to complete 100 miles on a bike,” she said of her son.
The law paved the way for cities to reduce speed limits from 25 to 20 mph and from 15 to 10 mph in specially designated “traffic calming zones.” The speed limit will remain at 40km/h on three-lane roads outside Manhattan.
“Too many children are killed by cars speeding through our city streets. Too many families are traumatized by too many preventative crashes and accidents. “I’ve seen too many people suffer injuries and cry too many tears,” Hochul said, noting that more than 100 pedestrians were killed by cars in the Big Apple last year.
“New York City will be able to take back its streets,” he added at an event promoting the new law.
Mr Adams also welcomed the new law, saying too many people were speeding in the city.
“If we slow down New Yorkers, we can slow down the number of deaths that we’re seeing,” Hizner said.
“All streets are not the same. We shouldn’t have speed limits across the city based on one ideology.” Adams added that he supports Cohen, who has championed the bill for 10 years after his son’s death. did.
City Hall has not yet released any details or timelines for how it plans to roll out speed limit changes under the new law.
The law requires a 60-day community engagement period before changing speed limits.
