In what the Department of Transportation (DOT) hopes to be the first of many in the city, the Claremont section of the Bronx became New York City's first "slow zone." The idea behind safe zones is that reducing the speed that drivers travel through neighborhoods will increase safety.
Slow zones involve remaking the neighborhood into an area that invites drivers to reduce their speed. To remake the 30-block Claremont neighborhood into a slow zone:
- Streets were made to feel narrower by repainting lane markers
- Speed bumps were installed, forcing cars to slow down to pass over them
- The speed limit was reduced to 20 m.p.h., and the new speed limit is made very aware to drivers through both painting it across the width of the roadway as drivers enter the slow zone and by installing new speed limit stanchions displaying the lower speed
NYC Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan was quoted in Transportation Nation as saying, "Making neighborhoods safe can be as simple as reducing the speed on our residential streets."
Commissioner Sadik-Khan further indicated that reduced speeds may save lives. CBS New York quoted Commissioner Sadik-Khan as saying, "If you are hit by a car going 20 m.p.h., there is a 95 percent chance you'll live, if you are hit by a car going 40 [m.p.h.], there is a 70 percent chance you'll die."
Drivers need to be aware of the new slow zones as they are created throughout New York City and possibly the state. Due to their newness, police may be on heightened alert for and issuing speeding tickets to drivers who disobey, willfully or not, the lower speed limits in slow zones.
