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Should parking next to NYC intersections be banned? New analysis finds mixed results.
By
Liam Quigley
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Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Jan 17, 2025
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Liam Quigley/Gothamist
By
Liam Quigley
and
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Jan 17, 2025
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A key traffic-calming measure championed by lawmakers and advocates in New York City can actually encourage dangerous driving, according to a new transportation department study challenging conventional wisdom about street safety.
Transportation planners have long said that daylighting — or restricting parking near intersections — improves the odds that pedestrians and drivers are able to see each other. Just last month, City Councilmember Julie Won introduced a bill requiring universal daylighting at all intersections. And at the end of 2023, Mayor Eric Adams pledged to daylight 1,000 intersections as part of an effort to reduce traffic deaths.
But the new Department of Transportation report reveals that daylighting can achieve the opposite of its intended effect. Motorists, the report found, tend to be emboldened by a clear line of sight at intersections and hit the gas, increasing the danger to pedestrians and others in the road.
The report, which was required by City Council legislation, concluded that changing driver behavior will require measures beyond daylighting. The report said “hardened daylighting,” which involves the installation of bollards or planters in spaces previously used for parking, has proved effective at improving safety.
“Visibility is a positive for traffic safety if it allows road users to see each other clearly and use that information early to avoid a crash. However, increased visibility can also give a driver the sense that all possible risks are known, encouraging faster speeds, reduced caution and less attention to the road,” the report reads.
Transportation department officials had signaled concern about daylighting being perceived as a panacea, even as Adams announced his initiative focusing on 1,000 intersections.
“We have a concern that if you just daylight in sort of the lightest touch way by creating a no standing zone at the corner, [it] has the unfortunate effect of widening the turn radius so that people can actually take the turn much faster,” DOT Deputy Commissioner for Transportation Planning and Management Eric Beaton said at a 2023 Council hearing.
Advocates said they did not see the report as a condemnation of daylighting.
“We've always said that it’s not just the removal of parking but also the inclusion of some type of physical elements,” said Ben Furnas, director of the nonprofit Transportation Alternatives.
The report examined thousands of intersections across the city to determine injury rates. The study analyzed intersections with bollards and other barriers preventing parking at corners, ones with signage prohibiting parking, or merely a fire hydrant where parking is not allowed.
Injury rates were 30% higher at intersections with a hydrant zone than ones without, the report found, and intersections with only signage restricting parking did not have a “statistically significant” effect on safety.
An intersection with a form of daylighting.
Liam Quigley/Gothamist
Last year, 247 people were killed in local traffic — a slight decline from 2023, according to the transportation department.
When a high-profile fatal crash occurs, daylighting is often one of the city's first responses. When an NYPD tow truck driver ran over a 7-year-old in 2023, the city announced it would daylight the intersection where the incident occurred. The intersection now also features large rocks that force drivers to take wide turns.
The city said half of all traffic fatalities occur at intersections. Furnas encouraged the transportation department and Adams to keep pushing ahead with making intersections safer, despite the pitfalls of certain types of daylighting studied in the report.
“ If the Adams administration is looking to deflate the ambitions of the street safety community by putting this out, that would be really unfortunate,” Furnas added.
Adams has been criticized for slow-walking or scaling back high-profile street safety measures. He has also fallen short on campaign pledges to install bus and bike lanes.
Beaton, the deputy transportation commissioner, said the study gives the city a bounty of new information to work with.
“ This was the first study of its kind that really looked at injuries and how injuries are prevented or not by different quality daylighting,” he said.
He said the study shows that simply ripping out a few parking spots and adding street signs to corners isn't enough to slow down drivers.
“One of the things that we found that I think was a real lesson for us was how ineffective a random sign-only daylighting around the city can be, where we not only found that it had no effect on injuries but that in certain circumstances [it] could even cause higher injury rates,” he said.
In a statement, Won, who represents parts of Queens, said that daylighting and barriers are key to saving lives. Her bill would prohibit parking or standing within 20 feet of a crosswalk at an intersection.
“There is no single magic bullet for pedestrian street safety," she said. "Daylighting is just one component of a larger comprehensive street infrastructure change to make our roads safe for the most vulnerable — children and seniors. Daylighting must be supplemented with hardened barriers like planters and boulders."
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new york city
public safety
transportation
Liam Quigley
Liam Quigley is a reporter covering parks & sanitation for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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