Everyone knows it’s dangerous to drive in New York (especially walkers wary of getting hit). But the city’s largest-ever speeding study shows reckless driving may be even more rampant than we thought.
Everyone knows it’s dangerous to drive in New York (especially walkers wary of getting hit). But the city’s largest-ever speeding study shows reckless driving may be even more rampant than we thought.
Get this: 39 percent of New York City drivers are caught speeding.
Transportation Alternatives surveyed more than 15,000 vehicles at 13 locations across the five boroughs. Researchers used radar guns and speeding-enforcement cameras -- the same technology used by law-enforcement officers across the country. They found 39 percent of drivers were in excess of the 30 mph speed limit, with fatal speeds of 60 mph and higher in school zones and other high-traffic pedestrian areas.
The study, which was released Thursday, depicts an alarm picture of city drivers.
Here are some of the key findings:
- Citywide, 39% of motorists drive above the 30 mph speed limit
- In Manhattan, 70% of drivers on East Houston Street speedthrough a school zone
- In the Bronx, 32% of drivers on Webster Avenue speed past aschool as fast as 66 mph
- In Queens, 32% of drivers on Northern Boulevard speed through abusy commercial area, past a school and police station
- In Brooklyn, 88% of drivers on Rogers Avenue in ProspectLefferts Gardens speed, with 25% exceeding 40 mph On Hylan Boulevard, Staten Island's most dangerous street, 39%of drivers exceed the speed limit, reaching fatal speeds over 60 mph
Speeding contributes to roughly 2,400 motor vehicle crashes in New York City each year -- nearly three times the number attributed to drunken driving. The likelihood of a crash resulting in a pedestrian fatality increases exponentially with speed; a pedestrian struck at 30 mph has a 60 percent chance of surviving a crash, but the likelihood of survival drops to 30 percent when the vehicle is driving at 40 mph.
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Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and Transportation Alternatives are calling for the installation of speeding enforcement cameras, NYPD monitoring of speeding levels and safer street designs to slow cars down.
"Pedestrian safety has always been a major concern for me and my office, but the recent traffic death of a former intern in my office has brought the issue home in a very personal way," Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said in a statement. "New York is a walking city, and we have to make it a safer one for the millions of New Yorkers and visitors who are out on our streets every day."
