New York City Car Accident Prevention: Communities can now apply for Neighborhood slow zones to reduce injuries and lower frequency and severity of crashes

In New York City, some 70,000 motor vehicle crashes are reported every year and among them 250 are fatal crashes, 3000 crashes lead to serious personal injury . 10,000 crashes involved pedestrians struck by a car or another vehicle such as a bus or a truck.

In order to reduce the frequency and the severity of these crashes the New York City Department of Transport has been running a Community based Neighborhood Slow Zone Program. Last year a dozen neighborhoods in the city had their application accepted and a speed limit of 20 mph with signage, gateways as well as speed bumps is being implemented this year. New Applications can now be filed by communities until the end of this month.

Many cities in Europe are already running this type of program. In London Slow Zone program saw a reduction a more that 40 % of fatal and severe injury crashes and the average speed in theses area will now be reduced to 9 mph. In the Netherlands crashes dropped by 25% in slow zones and in Barcelona by 27%. Similar results are expected in New York City’s newly created Slow Zones.