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Blood on the streets: Mamdani has a Vision Zero crisis
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Aug 26, 2026
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Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Aug 26, 2026
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This column originally appeared in The Politics Brief, our weekly newsletter on the people, power and policies that shape New Yorkers' lives.
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Hit-and-run drivers have killed four New Yorkers over the last week, and now street safety advocates are questioning Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s commitment to the Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic deaths across the five boroughs.
The number of people killed in car crashes — which in many years exceeds the number of people killed by gunshots — has been a key performance indicator for 21st-century New York City mayors. But advocates fear Mamdani isn’t taking the dramatic measures they say are necessary to address the problem, like redesigning streets and reducing speed limits across the city.
“We know what to do,” said Mary Beth Kelly, one of the founding members of Families for Safe Streets. “It's always been the political will that got in the way.”
On Wednesday, Families for Safe Streets and Transportation Alternatives plan to stage a “die-in” outside City Hall to highlight the growing problem. It’s the first such demonstration since 2019, when around 1,000 New Yorkers gathered in Washington Square Park to protest then-Mayor Bill de Blasio after a spike in cyclist fatalities.
Three cyclists were killed last week in separate hit-and-run incidents. A 22-year-old woman was also killed in a hit-and-run as she crossed the street in the West Village on Saturday morning. At least 18 cyclists have died so far this year, up from 10 deaths the city transportation department reported over the same period of 2025. Pedestrian deaths are down, though, with 58 so far this year compared to 70 at this point last year, NYPD data shows.
Mamdani has staked much of his agenda on transportation policies. Since taking office, he has revived bus lane and bike lane projects, focused on faster (if not free) buses and regularly rides a bike to get around town.
“He's spoken very eloquently about the need to make our streets the envy of the world, and in order to have streets that are the envy of the world, they need to be free of fear, safe, and full of life,” said Ben Furnas, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives. “We'd like to see him embrace those ambitions.”
But in a sign that advocates were losing patience, Furnas last month released a statement asking, “Where is Mayor Mamdani’s Vision Zero Plan?” The mayor has yet to release a comprehensive street safety strategy, he said.
Advocates have long argued that the city should expand two measures that have been successfully used in European cities: reducing speed limits and “daylighting.” The latter bans parking near intersections to improve visibility for both pedestrians and drivers.
Mamdani has taken steps to slow drivers around schools. City Hall earlier this year announced a plan to lower speed limits to 15 mph in hundreds of school zones equipped with automated speed cameras thanks to a new state law.
But after backing universal daylighting on the campaign trail, Mamdani has deferred to city transportation department officials who have questioned the measure’s efficacy, saying that reducing parking near corners actually makes them less safe. Earlier this year, officials said the city would implement daylighting at around 500 out of 40,000 intersections.
New York City mayors have long been accused of prioritizing the interests of drivers over other road users. Despite introducing Vision Zero, de Blasio was criticized for moving too slowly on safety improvements. His successor Eric Adams oversaw a record low in traffic fatalities last year, but his mayoralty was marked by 31 cyclist deaths in 2023, a modern-day record. Street safety advocates felt betrayed by his repeated decisions to scale back or nix street redesign projects.
Asked this week about the recent spate of cyclist deaths, Mamdani said he remains committed to Vision Zero. “Whether you're a pedestrian, a cyclist, a driver, a public transit rider, you should be entitled to the same level of safety,” he said.
The city’s annual traffic death toll has seen promising periods of decline since Vision Zero’s launch in 2014, but it has stayed above 200 for more than a decade.
Kelly, whose husband died in 2006 after he was hit by an NYPD tow truck, blamed mayors for bowing to political pressure. “Every one of them fell down on the job in terms of really having that vision for what this city could be if we weren't in this chokehold of the automobile,” she said.
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Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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