New York speed limit pilot reduces unsafe driving

A New York City pilot programme testing intelligent speed assistance (ISA) technology on 50 city fleet vehicles has resulted in near-universal compliance with local speed laws to date, the city has announced.

Since the launch of the pilot last August, vehicles covered almost 215,000 kilometres using ISA technology – which adjusts speeds to local limits – and travelled within the speed limit 99 percent of the time.

Use of the technology also accounted for a 36 percent reduction in hard braking events, which is often an indicator of unsafe driving.

Each vehicle was equipped with an override button that could temporarily disable the speed-limiting technology for 15 seconds, which the city said “could be helpful in certain hazardous situations”.

This was used approximately 600 times during the programme.

Preliminary findings

“The preliminary results are in, and our intelligent speed assistance pilot programme has successfully prevented speeding and reduced instances of unsafe driving,” said Dawn Pinnock, New York City’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner.

“Since we launched this pilot, our fleet vehicle operators continue to get the critical work done while prioritising safety for themselves and others.

“We are inspired by this success and look forward to a complete assessment of the pilot in the months to come.”

The ISA pilot is part of the city’s Safe Fleet Transition Plan for city fleet vehicles, which was updated in 2018.

Speed cameras

New York has also seen a dramatic reduction in speeding since its speed cameras were turned on 24/7 last August, with violations dropping 25 percent.

The city’s 2,200 speed cameras were switched on full time after a permanent programme was approved by the state of New York in June 2022.

Prior to this, the cameras were only running between 6am and 10pm on weekdays – despite statistics showing more than half of traffic deaths happen overnight or in the early morning hours.

New York City’s traffic fatalities dropped in 2022, following three consecutive years of increases.

There were 255 total traffic fatalities on its streets in 2022, a 6.6 percent decrease from the 273 recorded in 2021, but still 23.8 percent higher than the 206 recorded in 2018.

“The safety of all New Yorkers remains DOT’s number one priority entering the New Year,” said DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “We are proud that last year saw some encouraging trends, but Mayor Adams has made it clear that where traffic fatalities citywide are concerned, the only acceptable number is zero.”

In 2013, the year prior to Vision Zero’s implementation, New York City saw 299 total traffic fatalities. That number steadily dropped in each of the following years, reaching a low of 206 in 2018, data shows.

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