Traffic safety advocates cheered a new law allowing the Big Apple to lower speed limits on city streets to as low as 10 miles per hour.
The legislation – deemed “Sammy’s Law” in memory of 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein who was fatally struck by a van near his Park Slope home in 2013 – passed as part of the state budget last month.
“This is a joyous but bittersweet moment,” Cohen Eckstein’s mother, Amy Cohen, said as she appeared at a press conference Thursday in Manhattan with Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
“Sammy was fierce and determined. Just a few weeks before he died he was the youngest one to complete a hundred mile bicycle ride,” she said of her son.
The law clears the way for the city to reduce speed limits from 25 to 20 miles per hour and 15 to 10 miles per hour in specially designated “traffic calming zones.” Three-lane streets outside of Manhattan will remain at 25 miles per hour.
“Too many children have been hit and killed by cars speeding through our city streets. We’ve seen too many tears shed too many families traumatized too many preventative crashes and accidents,” Hochul said, noting that over 100 pedestrians died after being hit by cars in the Big Apple last year.
“New York City will be able to take back its streets,” she added at the event touting the new law.
Adams hailed the new law as well saying that far too many people are driving too fast in the city.
“Slow down New Yorkers, and then we can slow down the deaths we are seeing,” hizzoner said.
“All streets are not the same. We should not have speed limits within the entire city based on one philosophy.” Adams added, cheering Cohen’s advocacy for the legislation over the last decade since her son’s death.
City hall has yet to specify details or a timeline as to how they plan to roll out speed limit changes under the new law.
The legislation requires a 60-day community engagement period before changing any speed limits.
