$4M Anti-Speeding Campaign To Tackle NYC's Traffic Violence 'Crisis'

EAST NEW YORK, BROOKLYN — A $4 million ad campaign unveiled in East New York on Monday has a simple message for New York City drivers: Slow down.

The new multi-million campaign from Mayor Eric Adams and the Department of Transportation will bring anti-speeding messages to billboards, radio airwaves, social media feeds and TV sets across the five boroughs as officials work to tamp down an ongoing spike in dangerous crashes.

"This is a real crisis," the mayor said at a press conference unveiling the campaign's first billboard on East New York's Pennsylvania Avenue. "Wherever you live, whatever your language may be, we're going to get the message out."

The campaign against speeding — which officials said has increased in the last two years — features images and videos of pedestrians getting hit by cars with the message "Speeding Ruins Lives, Slow Down.”

It will be spread in radio and television ads, billboards, bus shelters, LinkNYC kiosks and at gas station pumps, including $1.5 million specifically for ethnic media, where the message will be distributed in nine different languages.

The campaign comes as traffic fatalities in New York City spike. In the first three months of the year, 59 people lost their lives on New York City streets, a 44-percent jump from the year before and the deadliest start to any year since the city launched its Vision Zero safety effort in 2014, data from Transportation Alternatives shows.

In East New York specifically, there have been 35 traffic fatalities and more than 300 serious injuries since 2017, one of the highest counts in the city, officials said.

Adams has previously vowed to tackle street safety with a $900 million plan to expand bike lanes, bus lanes and other pedestrian safety projects.

He said Monday that the city's police department has also been focusing on enforcing speeding and reckless driving rules since he took office. The NYPD issued 47 percent more summonses in a 28-day period ending April 24 than they had the year before, including a 322-percent increase in summonses in East New York's 75th Precinct, according to the mayor's office.