A new City Council analysis of data from the city’s Vision Zero program to eliminate traffic deaths and injuries found that four specific interventions designed to slow vehicle speeds and boost pedestrian visibility were the most effective at reducing such casualties over its first 10 years in effect, amNewYork has learned.
The analysis, which was shared with amNewYork ahead of its Wednesday release, looks at the effectiveness of nine specific street safety interventions, both physical infrastructure and policy changes, the city has employed through the program since its 2014 launch.
“To keep New Yorkers safe on our streets, we must invest in effective interventions that reduce injuries and save lives,” City Council Speaker Julie Menin said in a statement.
“The Council’s data analysis provides valuable insight into which Vision Zero interventions are having the greatest impact across the city and where we should focus these resources,” she added.
City Department of Transportation spokesperson Scott Gastel responded to the analysis in a statement touting the agency’s own finding that pedestrian traffic deaths reached their lowest point ever in 2025. They also reached an all-time low for the first six months of this year, amNewYork reported last month.
Gastel added that DOT will “review the Council’s findings in full.”
“Vision Zero safety enhancements continue to lead to historic declines in traffic fatalities — with pedestrian fatalities at an all-time low — due largely to the types of specific treatments and broader projects implemented by the city and analyzed in this report by the City Council,” Gastel said. “One fatality is too many, and we will continue to deliver safer street design, targeted traffic enforcement, and expanded public education in our efforts to save lives.”
Inside the Council’s Vision Zero data analysis
The council’s data team reviewed Vision Zero stats from 9,562 intersections across the city between 2013 and 2023 — metrics it obtained from the NYPD and DOT through the city’s online open data portal. It looked specifically at intersection treatments made between 2015 and 2021, to have a couple of years of before-and-after data for each to determine their effectiveness.
The team visualized their findings in an interactive online map of both traffic casualties and Vision Zero treatments over the 10-year span.
The analysis found that four of the nine interventions were the most effective at reducing traffic casualties during the first decade of Vision Zero.
Those include:
- Turn traffic calming measures that slow turning vehicle speeds and increase pedestrian visibility;
- Neighborhood slow zones, swaths of neighborhoods where the speed limit has been reduced to 20 miles per hour;
- Leading pedestrian intervals, signal timing that allows pedestrians to begin crossing the street before vehicles traveling in the same direction; and
- A citywide speed limit reduction.
The measures saw 27%, 21%, 13%, and 10% reductions in pedestrian casualties, respectively.
City Council Member Shaun Abreu (D-Manhattan), chair of the body’s Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said in an interview that the analysis “paints a clear picture of the types of interventions that make a marked difference in reducing fatalities and injuries.”
“They illustrate the types of interventions that we should double down on and keep investing in,” he added.
Abreu said that he has seen the effectiveness of those changes firsthand at the intersection of 125th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in his West Harlem district.
Alterations at the intersection, such as 25 mph signal retiming, a speed limit reduction, a safety improvement corridor project, and turn traffic calming measures between 2014 and 2022, reduced traffic casualties there by 68% over that period, he said.
“It’s important to know that these kinds of interventions build on each other,” Abreu said. “The report shows that by layering safety improvements over time, we create safer streets and stronger outcomes.”
At the same time, the data team reported on which Vision Zero changes had “no statistically significant effect.” Among those were 25 mph signal retiming, corridors where signals are timed to 25 mph speed limits; safety-oriented engineering improvements (SIP) at intersections, projects that include a suite of different street safety treatments at intersections; and enhanced crossings, high-visibility crosswalks without stop signs or traffic signals.
The analysis found that only one of the three interventions, 25 mph signal retiming, reduced traffic casualties at all, by 2%. Meanwhile, it found that casualties actually increased at intersections with safety-oriented engineering improvements and enhanced crossings — by nearly 4% and 19.6% respectively.
DOT, however, disagrees with the council’s findings that some of the treatments had no effect on pedestrian casualties, Gastel said. That is because the public-facing data the council used does not provide enough detail on the specific treatments used in every safety project it analyzed, he added.
Abreu, who plans to hold a hearing on the findings, likely sometime in the fall, said that while there may be disagreements around the data, the analysis marks an “opportunity for us to share information and to continue being strong partners on achieving Vision Zero.”
“The more the information we have, the merrier,” he added. “This data that we put together has been the most comprehensive data set on Vision Zero to date. We look forward to showing that to the world, and also hoping to use that information as thought partners as we navigate our relationship with the DOT side.”