Mayor Adams Must Fix Canal Street, Lower Manhattan Bridge Speed Limit After Speeding Driver Kills Cyclist and Pedestrian at Canal and Bowery

Canal Street is one of the most dangerous streets in Manhattan. 

18 New Yorkers have been killed or seriously injured on Canal Street since 2022.

At 35 mph, the speed limit on the Manhattan Bridge is 15 mph higher than on Canal Street.

NEW YORK — On Saturday morning, a speeding driver hit and killed two New Yorkers on Canal Street in Manhattan. The driver hit and killed a man riding his bike, 55-year-old Kevin Cruickshank, then careened onto the sidewalk, where she hit and killed a woman sitting on a bench, 63-year-old May Kwok. Kevin Cruickshank was a TA member.

The driver was exiting the Manhattan Bridge, where the speed limit is 35 mph, before heading into a busy pedestrian corridor with a 20 mph speed limit. This is a sudden and abrupt change, and TA, alongside every downtown elected official, has called for lower bridge speeds. The Chinatown BID also supports lowering the bridge speed limit to 25 mph. 35 mph is an exorbitantly high speed limit, and it goes unenforced, with no speed cameras on the Manhattan Bridge. 

While the majority of New Yorkers traveling along Canal Street are pedestrians (64%), cars and trucks take up 90% of the space. Canal Street also runs through Council District 1, which has some of the highest traffic volumes in the city, the slowest buses, and the worst air pollution despite the fact that 79% of households in this district are car-free, according to Spatial Equity NYC. Since the start of congestion pricing, traffic has eased significantly, creating a new opportunity to finally redesign the corridor. 

In response to these deadly conditions, TA’s Manhattan Activist Committee launched its Fix Canal campaign in 2018. The campaign calls for a comprehensive redesign of the entire street to prioritize safety for everyone. The City has studied the street several times from 2002-2010, but despite ample recommendations, the corridor remains mostly unchanged. In 2022, DOT guaranteed a draft of a redesign in 2024 before launching yet another study in 2023, and in 2024, a DOT spokesperson said the department “looks forward to sharing safety recommendations with the community this year.” 

Just last year, after a pedestrian was killed on Canal and Lafayette Street, one block from this weekend’s fatal crash, TA’s Manhattan Activists marched alongside local electeds calling on urgent safety improvements for the corridor. Following last year’s fatality and TA’s subsequent march, every elected official representing the corridor signed a joint letter to DOT calling for a full safety redesign of Canal Street and a reduction in traffic speeds on the Manhattan Bridge approach. 

Despite over two decades of studies and promises, the project remains stalled, and the street remains dangerous. Just 24 hours after Saturday’s double-fatal crash, there was another violent crash on the same block — a driver slammed into a food truck, sending the operator to the hospital.

Statement from Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Ben Furnas:

“We are heartbroken to learn that two New Yorkers were hit and killed over the weekend on a street we’ve been fighting to fix for the past seven years. We send our condolences to their family and friends. No one should be killed just for riding their bike or daring to sit on a bench in the city they call home. Kevin Cruickshank was a longtime biker and TA member, and his loss will be felt throughout our entire community.

“City Hall knows that Canal Street is one of the most dangerous in our city, but they’ve stalled any improvements over and over again. Spinelessly ignoring a public health emergency puts every New Yorker at risk. 

“Today, Mayor Adams isn’t just ignoring the crises on New York City’s deadliest streets; he’s actually fighting in court to rip up proven street safety improvements on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. Make no mistake: these decisions have deadly consequences. Ineffective and cowardly leadership from Mayor Adams killed two New Yorkers over the weekend. Destroying proven street safety upgrades on a dangerous truck route will undoubtedly kill more. Mayor Adams must act now before more New Yorkers are killed.”

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Families for Safe Streets members — crash survivors or loved ones of crash victims — are available for interviews upon request.