BY SAM SPOKONY | For some people, Slow Zones can’t come fast enough.
A street safety advocacy group went guerilla this past weekend, posting signs advocating for 20-miles-per-hour speed limits in neighborhoods within Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens whose requests for additional traffic safety measures have been denied by the city. Several of the “20 is Plenty” signs, created by the group Right of Way, were posted in Tribeca, along Greenwich St.
Organizers of the direct action said they want Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Department of Transportation to move faster on de Blasio’s pledge — as part of his “Vision Zero” initiative to cut down on pedestrian and cyclist traffic deaths — to expedite and expand the Neighborhood Slow Zone program, which would lower the speed limit and install speed bumps or other traffic calming measures in approved Slow Zone areas.
The outgoing Bloomberg administration rejected many Slow Zone applications last year, including some proposed for Tribeca and Battery Park City (outside P.S./I.S. 276), as well as others in the West and East Village (where Right of Way also placed several of its signs).
“We’re not trying to turn people against D.O.T.,” Keegan Stephan, a Right of Way organizer, said in a March 17 phone interview. “We’re just applying some pressure to try to make both the politicians and local communities act faster to support the Slow Zone effort.”
He added that, as of 2:15 p.m. that day, all of the signs — which were installed throughout March 15 and 16 — were still in place, although they will likely be taken down as soon as the city determines their exact locations.
“The response so far has been extraordinarily positive,” said Stephan, referring to both media coverage and remarks from community members who support increased traffic safety.
