Day: July 23, 2026

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Transportation advocates on Thursday urged Mayor Zohran Mamdani to release a new plan for Vision Zero, the city’s program to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries from traffic crashes, while unveiling new data showing a rise in traffic deaths during the first half of 2026.

The advocates, with the groups Transportation Alternatives (TA) and Families for Safe Streets, also called on the administration to greatly expand its use of Sammy’s Law, which allows the city to lower speed limits to 20 miles per hour. 

According to the groups’ new analysis of Vision Zero data for the first six months of this year, 99 people have been killed in traffic crashes during that period. That’s equal to one New Yorker dying from the incidents every two days.

The groups found that 37% of pedestrian deaths and 38% of bike rider fatalities took place on the city’s most dangerous streets — designated as “Vision Zero Priority Corridors” — over the first six months of this year.

TA Executive Director Ben Furnas, in a statement, asked where Mamdani’s “Vision Zero plan” is half a year into his first term — referring to the kind of yearly updates former Mayor Bill de Blasio had released on the program over its first seven years. He also said Mamdani must implement Sammy’s Law more widely, beyond the over 800 streets adjacent to schools where he committed to put it into effect earlier this year.

“Too many New Yorkers are being killed and injured to not yet know how the new mayor will shape Vision Zero in his administration,” Furnas said. “Nearly one in three New Yorkers killed in the last six months died on a known-dangerous Vision Zero Priority Corridor, but City Hall has not yet laid out their whole-of-government street safety strategy. In the shorter term, the mayor can make our streets safer, fully implementing Sammy’s Law, not piecemeal on single streets, but by lowering speed limits across wide swaths of New York City.”

DOT data conflicts with transportation advocates’ figures

City Department of Transportation (DOT) spokesperson Vincent Barone countered that there was only one “Vision Zero Action Plan” ever released when de Blasio first launched the effort in 2014. However, he and the advocates appeared to be referring to different kinds of reports.

The agency also offered a statement that did not directly address either of the groups’ demands, but reiterated the Mamdani administration’s commitment to Vision Zero.

“No New Yorker should fear walking to school, biking to work, or driving to visit a loved one,” the DOT said. “Vision Zero means that one death is one too many and under Mayor Mamdani, we are doubling down on innovative approaches to safer street design, targeted traffic enforcement, and expanded public education—-because the city must use every tool at its disposal to prevent catastrophic crashes and save lives.”

The agency released its own report on the first six months of Vision Zero earlier this month, finding the period marked an historic low for pedestrian traffic deaths.

The joint TA/Families for Safe Streets analysis also found an 86% rise in cyclist deaths, counting both bicycle and e-bike riders. That was an increase of seven last year to 13 this year — 10 of whom were killed on streets without protected bike lanes.

Barone, however, said that there was actually a 64% increase, rather than 86%, though it was not clear where that percentage came from.

Furthermore, the report found that 50% more children were killed in crashes during the first six months of this year compared to last — nine vs. six.

The DOT spokesperson also disputed that figure, saying child traffic fatalities remained flat between last year and this year at three.

Fabiola Mendieta-Cuapio, an executive committee co-chair for Families for Safe Streets New York, whose son was killed by a driver at the age of five, said the rise in child deaths that the organizations’ found is “horrifying.”

“It must be a wake-up call for the new administration to put out its plan to finally reach Vision Zero,” Mendieta-Cuapio said. “New York families can’t wait for life-saving street redesigns — the sooner our streets are upgraded, the more children’s lives we can save.”