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Lawmakers demand redesign of NYC intersections, saying too many kids killed in traffic
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Nov 13, 2025
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Stephen Nessen
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Stephen Nessen
Published Nov 13, 2025
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A group of city lawmakers and transportation advocates on Wednesday said Mayor Eric Adams was responsible for the deaths of dozens of children killed in car crashes since he took office, arguing he should have done more to improve pedestrian safety.
Standing in front of 50 pairs of shoes on the steps of City Hall, intended to represent the number of children killed in crashes since the start of 2022, the group called on the City Council to pass legislation requiring redesigns at streets across the five boroughs.
The bill would require the city Department of Transportation to “daylight” — or take away 20 feet of parking spaces — near 1,000 intersections every year.
“ Those of us who are lucky enough to not have visible injuries or visibly disabled, the injuries and trauma cannot be undone. We can only prevent future crashes,” said Kate Brockwehl, who said she was hit by a driver in 2017 while at a crosswalk in Lower Manhattan. ”These crashes are preventable. The time to prevent more injuries than deaths because drivers can't see us is now.”
The idea has proven controversial because it would remove parking. It was previously supported by Adams and transportation department officials, who just two years ago vowed to accomplish exactly what the legislation calls for without a mandate from the Council. But the Adams administration changed course last year, and released a report arguing “daylighting” actually made many intersections more dangerous.
Queens Councilmember Julie Won, who sponsored the bill, said lives were lost while the transportation department failed to act.
“ Our city will not accept any more losses of lives … preventable deaths that can be saved if they would just do the right thing,” Won said.
Won said transportation department Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez should be "completely ashamed” and called for him to come to City Hall and look at the display of shoes.
“There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to street safety, and we will continue to do what works best in the places where it works best so that we can save lives and keep people safe,” transportation department spokesperson Vin Barone wrote in a statement. “We appreciate the advocates who support this bill, but we spent two years reviewing data from thousands of intersections across New York City and found that universal daylighting would not improve safety and could cause up to 15,000 additional traffic injuries per year.”
Won said she’s open to a watered-down version of the bill that would only require daylighting at intersections near schools. She said members of the Council were still negotiating details for that proposal with the Department of Transportation.
It was still unclear on Wednesday if the scaled-back bill had support to pass by the start of 2026, when a new City Council gets sworn in.
“The safety of pedestrians and all street users remains a top priority for Speaker Adams and the Council,” Julia Agos, a spokesperson for Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, wrote in an email.
Advocates cited places like Hoboken, which has daylighting at nearly every intersection, as evidence the strategy works. The New Jersey city — which has a population of just 60,000 people — has not reported a traffic death in eight years.
Tagged
Politics
new york city
public safety
transportation
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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