MAYOR ADAMS LAUNCHES MAJOR CAMPAIGN TO TACKLE TRAFFIC VIOLENCE: “SPEEDING RUINS LIVES. SLOW DOWN.”

 

New $4 Million Campaign Targets Speeding, Dangerous Driving Behaviors That Increased During Pandemic With Ads in Nine Languages, Represents City’s Largest and Most Concentrated Public Education Investment in Vision Zero 

New Effort Follows Mayor Adams’ $900 Million Investment in Traffic Safety, Plan to Redesign 1,000 Intersections Across Five Boroughs, Campaign for Local Control of Proven Traffic Safety Tools

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez today launched a $4 million multi-platform, multilingual campaign to counter rising traffic violence and curb dangerous driving behaviors, like speeding, that have occurred at higher rates since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The city’s largest and most concentrated investment in public awareness since the start of Vision Zero in 2014, the campaign — titled “Speeding Ruins Lives, Slow Down” — also represents the largest education effort targeted at community and ethnic media with a $1.5 million commitment, helping to reach a range of communities across the five boroughs, including communities of color that disproportionately suffer as a result of traffic violence. Video ads and other content will appear in a total of nine languages, including English and Spanish. 

“Traffic safety is public safety, and today we are continuing to take action against traffic violence,” said Mayor Adams. “This unprecedented campaign will reach New Yorkers across the five boroughs in nine languages with one message: Slow down. And we are going to do all we can to focus on the ultimate goal of Vision Zero and eliminate traffic fatalities.”

“Over the next two months, New Yorkers will see for themselves the horrible aftermath of driving too fast,” said DOT Commissioner Rodriguez. “This campaign will be unprecedented in the extent of its outreach: It will be in more communities, cover more community and ethnic media, and speak to New Yorkers in nine different languages. We thank the mayor for his support and leadership as we use all the tools in the toolbox to fight this traffic violence crisis.”

The campaign launched with the unveiling of a new billboard on Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn. With 35 traffic fatalities and more than 300 serious injuries since 2017, East New York is one of the neighborhoods hit hardest by traffic violence during the last two years of the pandemic and a Vision Zero priority area with major safety and street redesign projects also currently underway. Campaign content will reach all five boroughs through a variety of media, radio and television ads, billboards, bus shelters, LinkNYC kiosks, and gas station pumps. An extensive community and ethnic media presence — with a $1.5 million commitment marking the city’s first Vision Zero public education campaign focused on community and ethnic media with more than $1 million — will include newspaper and online digital ads, running in nine different languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, Haitian Creole, Korean, Polish. Russian, and Spanish. 

The new effort follows Mayor Adams’ historic investment of more than $900 million in street safety as part of his fiscal year 2023 executive budget. Mayor Adams also announced a plan to redesign 1,000 intersections across New York City to protect pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers, and he has led a coalition of partners urging Albany to give New York City local control of automated enforcement, a tool proven to reduce dangerous driving. 

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) continues to increase its enforcement of speeding and reckless driving in areas where fatalities are occurring. In the 28-day period ending April 24, 2022, the NYPD issued 47.4 percent more summonses for all hazardous conditions on New York City’s roads than in the same period in 2021. The NYPD also issued 54.6 percent more summonses in that period than in the same period last year, including a 322 percent increase in East New York’s 75^th precinct, and they have issued five percent more speeding summonses citywide in the first four months of 2022 than they had at this point last year. 

“Speeding and reckless driving behavior puts everyone on New York City’s roads at risk, and eradicating it remains at the core of the NYPD’s intelligence-driven traffic safety policies,” said NYPD Chief of Transportation Kim Y. Royster. “We have stepped up enforcement on highways where data shows a rise in injuries and fatal collisions. Across the NYPD, we have focused relentlessly on drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians and cyclists at intersections. And we have continued to conduct Vision Zero high-visibility corridor enforcement and education operations, which strategically deploy personnel to carry out traffic enforcement and education in areas of the city where it is needed most: those locations with a high number of vulnerable road users hurt in traffic collisions. The NYPD’s layered approach reinforces our core philosophy that traffic safety is public safety — a philosophy that drives enforcement across all our police precincts and at our weekly traffic safety forum meetings.” 

“Getting around town by two wheels or two heels is the healthiest way to travel, but we need motorists to do their part to keep our roads safe for everyone” said New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan. “This is a great campaign to keep safety at the front of drivers’ minds.” 

“Speeding is the leading cause of pedestrian deaths,” said New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) Acting Commissioner Ryan Wanttaja. “We know that the slower you drive, the more time you have to brake and react, and the TLC is proud to stand with the Department of Transportation on this campaign. Crashes are preventable, and no one should be hurt because of speeding.” 

“We urge all drivers to slow down; it keeps pedestrians, cyclists, and other motorists safe,” said New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) Commissioner Dawn M. Pinnock. “At DCAS, we have been hard at work to improve the safety of our fleet vehicles and explore new technologies to standardize safe driving among city employees. We will continue to support DOT and all agencies on our shared mission to make city streets safer for all New Yorkers.” 

“DDC has more than $1.5 billion of Vision Zero, Great Streets, and Select Bus Service enhancements in its design and construction pipelines with DOT, and we’re finding ways to deliver those projects faster than ever before,” said New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) Commissioner Thomas Foley. “We’re implementing design-build for the first time in city infrastructure projects, we’re incorporating private utility work directly into our contracts so we have more control and fewer delays, and we’re using more precast concrete elements that let us continue work in the colder winter months. We’ll continue to seek ways to build safe streets projects faster and more efficiently.”