The city’s decision to cut the default speed limit to 25 miles per hour did not apply everywhere, including a section of Riverside Drive from 103rd to 165th street where drivers can still go 30 mph.
But local politicians want that decision reconsidered. Council members Helen Rosenthal and Mark Levine sent a letter to DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg asking for the change, saying “Residents who cross this stretch of Riverside Drive deserve the safety of a lower speed limit.” We’ve posted the whole thing below.
Some areas remain at 30 mph because the city only changed the speed limit on streets that did not already have signs indicating that the limit was 30 mph, according to DOT.
“Riverside Drive north of 103rd Street has long been signed for 30 mph. The new 25 mph default speed limit went into effect on November 7 on streets that were not explicitly signed with a speed limit. Moving forward, we plan to evaluate individual corridors that are signed for speed limits higher than 25 mph, including looking at Riverside Drive in early 2015. We intend to work with the local community, as we consider safety enhancements for pedestrians and to calm traffic, in addition to considering modifications to the posted speed limit. As we do this work, we will be focusing our efforts on corridors with high crash rates and considering the natural speeds of vehicles so as to not create undue speed traps.
We thank the Council members for bringing this to our attention and we look forward to working with them to make Riverside Drive safer.”
Riverside Drive Speed Limit Request
Photo at 116th street and Riverside Drive by Mark Garbowski.
Time and again it always comes down to the drivers. If people would stop jaywalking they would not be hit – by a car going 30, 25 or even 10. This is just getting more and more ridiculous. Pedestrians need to follow traffic rules too,
The restriction should be extended to 125 on RSD. Children, pets, other pedestrians permeate these blocks. There is no excuse for higher speeds where babies, seniors, pets abound.