Community Boards Representing One Million New Yorkers Demand 20 mph Speed Limits Across Entire Districts

In less than two months, eight community boards have passed resolutions asking DOT to use Sammy’s Law to lower speed limits in their districts to 20 mph.

Sammy’s Law gave New York City the ability to implement slower, safer speeds on the vast majority of streets in the five boroughs.

The law passed in 2024, but the Adams administration only ever implemented slower, safer speeds on less than 2% of eligible streets.

NEW YORK — On Thursday evening, Manhattan Community Board 2 unanimously approved a resolution asking DOT to lower speed limits to 20 mph across the entire district. This is the eighth community board to pass such a resolution. The number of New Yorkers represented by community boards making this request now exceeds one million.

Sammy’s Law — named for Sammy Cohen Eckstein, a 12-year-old boy who was killed by a reckless driver just outside his Brooklyn home in 2013 — allows New York City to finally control its own speed limits. Under the law, the Mamdani administration has broad authority to unilaterally lower speed limits across entire neighborhoods.

Speed is a leading cause of crashes in New York City, and lowering speed limits saves lives: people walking have a 90% likelihood of surviving a car crash at 20 miles per hour, compared to just a 60% chance at 30 miles per hour.

Sammy’s Law has already been implemented in the entirety of Manhattan’s Community Board 1, which stretches from Canal Street to the bottom of the island. The boards now formally asking for implementation are Manhattan Community Boards 2, 4, and 5; Brooklyn Community Boards 1, 6, and 7; and Queens Community Boards 1 and 2. They represent New Yorkers in Midtown, Union Square, Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, Hudson Yards, Tribeca, Greenwich Village, SoHo/NoHo, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Red Hook, Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace, Long Island City, Astoria, Blissville, Woodside, and Sunnyside.

Statement from Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Ben Furnas:
“New Yorkers are clamoring for safer streets with slower speed limits. From Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan to Sunnyside, Queens, the Mamdani Administration should listen to the voices of the eight community boards representing one million people, who are asking the City to finally implement Sammy’s Law across many of the most populous neighborhoods in New York.”

Statement from Amy Cohen, the Founder & President of Families for Safe Streets:
“In 2013, my 12-year-old son Sammy was struck and killed by a speeding driver, and I’ve been fighting for safer speeds on our streets ever since. Sammy’s Law works wherever it’s implemented, and with eight community boards now formally requesting it, Mayor Mamdani has an enormous community-driven opportunity to immediately make streets safer for more than a million New Yorkers.”