Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday unveiled “Vision Zero Reimagined,” a wide-ranging plan to eliminate traffic deaths within 10 years — including by boosting “pedestrian-only” zones across the city.
The 104-page blueprint, however, offers few concrete details on the no-car zones, such as where they would be located or how much of the city would be turned into “pedestrian-priority districts.”
The plan also vaguely vows to institute 20 mph speed limits across “entire neighborhoods” and to look into instituting higher tolls for oversized passenger cars.
The city will be “providing disincentives to private automobile trips, ownership and on-street storage,” the report states.
Some of the few tangible actions — among dozens of initiatives outlined in the plan — include:
- Establishing the city’s “first-ever Super Speeder” program, requiring drivers who rack up 16 or more speed camera tickets in one year to install speed-limiting devices in their cars.
- Expanding 15 mph limits in more school zones. The Mamdani administration previously vowed to do this in 800 school zones this year, though just 200 so far have been implemented, city officials admitted.
- Make safety improvements at 1,000 intersections across the city, including by removing visual obstructions (daylighting), adding physical barriers and more.
The plan is a revamp of former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s original “Vision Zero,” which he unveiled in 2014 when there were 252 traffic deaths, promising to bring the tragic tally down to none by 2024.
Advocacy group Transportation Alternatives staged a “die-in” over the summer demanding that Mamdani provide an update to de Blasio’s blueprint.
Mamdani’s plan would also increase automated ticketing for parking violations, failure to yield and distracted driving and mount more cameras on MTA buses to catch cars that veer into bus lanes and bus stops.
The plan suggests subsidizing Citi Bike, which is owned by Lyft, a major donor to Transportation Alternatives.
