The city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) said yesterday in a emailed statement that it is very unlikely to up the speed limit on Ocean Parkway to 30 miles per hour from its’ present 25 miles per hour.
The statement is a response to City Council members David Greenfield and Mark Treyger‘s recent call to up the speed limit to 30 on the busy major thoroughfare that runs from the Prospect Expressway south to the Brighton Beach/Coney Island Boardwalk.
The speed limit was 30 mph, but was lowered as part of Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero initiative.
“Ocean Parkway is a challenging roadway. It serves as a major automobile route through Brooklyn but also as a linear park, bike and pedestrian path, used by many local residents, including children and seniors. A pedestrian struck at 25 mph is twice as likely as likely to survive a crash as one struck at 30 mph,” wrote the DOT in the statement. “NYC DOT believes that the lower speed limit, paired with consistent enforcement and community engagement, will be an effective approach to ensuring both safety and mobility on this important roadway.”
The statement noted that Ocean Parkway is the fourth most dangerous roadway for pedestrians in Brooklyn and its history of serious crashes informed DOT’s decision to reduce the speed limit by 5 mph.
Ocean Parkway saw 64 pedestrians killed or severely injured (KSI) between 2009-2013, including eight pedestrian fatalities. The pedestrian KSI rate for Ocean Parkway was 13.2 per mile over that five-year period. By comparison, the more notorious Queens Boulevard, where DOT recently lowered the speed limit to 25 mph, had a pedestrian KSI per mile of 7.3 over the same five-year period.
