Traffic deaths continue to fall in NYC, city reports

Traffic fatalities in NYC dropped 18% in the first nine months of 2025 compared to the same period last year, putting the city on pace for one of its safest years on record, transportation officials said Thursday.

According to data released by the Department of Transportation (DOT), the city recorded 159 traffic deaths through September, down from 194 at this point in 2024. That figure marks the third-lowest number of fatalities in the first three quarters of any year since recordkeeping began in 1910, per officials.

“Traffic deaths are trending down, near the lowest levels in recorded history because of Vision Zero’s focus on safer street designs, expanded public education, and targeted traffic enforcement,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “While one traffic fatality is one too many, whether you are a pedestrian, a cyclist, or a driver, our streets are safer than ever and the important work must continue.”

The decline was seen across nearly all categories of road users. Deaths among drivers and vehicle occupants fell 37.5%, dropping from 40 last year to 25 so far in 2025. Fatalities among riders of e-bikes, mopeds, motorcycles, and other motorized two-wheelers declined 15%, from 60 to 51.

Traditional bicycle fatalities reached a record low, with just three deaths, compared with five in 2024 and seven in 2023. Pedestrian deaths also decreased, falling 10% from 89 last year to 80.

The DOT credited the progress in part to major street redesigns across the city.

On Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn, for example, a 2022 project converted the road to a one-way street with a parking-protected two-way bike lane, leading to a 31% reduction in pedestrian injuries and a 16% drop in injuries to vehicle occupants, even as cycling increased by nearly 30%.

In the Bronx, officials credit protected bike lanes and bus boarding islands installed along White Plains Road in Williamsbridge led to a 41% decrease in motor vehicle occupant injuries and a 10% drop in overall crash injuries.

DOT officials said that in Queens, the city’s ongoing transformation of Queens Boulevard has reduced pedestrian injuries by 45% and total crash injuries by 20% since the project’s fourth phase was completed in 2021.

‘We need to do more, not less’

The Vision Zero program, launched in 2014, aims to eliminate all traffic deaths and serious injuries in the city through street redesigns, targeted enforcement, and public education campaigns.

Ben Furnas, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, said the group was comforted to hear that this was New York City’s third-safest year since 1910, stating that the data reinforces what it has long known: “protected bike lanes improve the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists alike.”

“But this means we need to do more, not less. The Adams administration needs to stop watering down, slowing, or ripping out projects on Bedford Avenue, McGuinness Boulevard, Ashland Place, and everywhere protected bike lanes languish unfinished or disjointed,” said Furnas. “New Yorkers deserve a high-quality protected bike lane network to save lives all over the city so that everyone makes it home safely.”

Earlier this summer, the city removed three blocks of Bedford Avenue’s protected bike lane, planning to replace them with an unprotected lane, after a judge sided with the Adams administration in a legal dispute sparked by local complaints.

The McGuinness Boulevard redesign was scrapped after former Adams senior adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin allegedly accepted bribes to alter it on behalf of a prominent local family. Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has promised to complete the safety project, and others, if elected.

Separately, the Adams administration removed the Ashland Place block between Hanson Place and Lafayette Avenue from the 2023 protected bike lane plan after Lewis-Martin allegedly intervened on behalf of Two Trees, a developer with property on the block.