As New York's City Council considers lowering the speed limit in the city's residential neighborhoods to 20 miles per hour, advocates can look to the Claremont neighborhood in the South Bronx where such a move has been well received.
Chris Bragg ventures to the "quiet streets" of Claremont to check up on "the pilot location for the city's new Neighborhood Slow Zone program, which promised to reduce speeding—the greatest contributing factor to traffic fatalities citywide—and in the process protect children and the elderly."
"In kicking off the program two years ago, city Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan noted, 'To some people, this neighborhood is nothing more than a shortcut,' and vowed to put an end to that."
"By most accounts," notes Bragg, "she has succeeded spectacularly."
In fact, the program has become so successful that the city's Department of Transportation has had to stop taking applications for entry into the program in order to focus on implementing 15 new zones announced in October.
A bill that came before the City Council's transportation committee last week would reduce speed limits to 20 mph in residential areas across New York.
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
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HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research