Amid Record-High Bike Deaths, Transportation Alternatives, Families for Safe Streets, and Members of the NYC Bike Family Demanded Mayor Adams Take Action Now

Traffic violence has killed 26 people riding bikes this year – the most ever in the Vision Zero era and second most in recorded history.

For cyclists, these are the deadliest first two years of any mayor in recorded history – and we still have 11 weeks to go.

Mayor Adams has failed to meet the legally-mandated requirements of the NYC Streets Plan. 

NEW YORK — Today, Transportation Alternatives, Families for Safe Streets, and the NYC Bike Family coalition rallied to demand Mayor Adams take immediate action to stop record-high levels of bike fatalities in New York City. 

“We shouldn’t have to be here, begging our city’s leaders to end a preventable crisis of traffic violence on our streets,” said Danny Harris, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. “We stand here for the 26 New Yorkers, killed riding a bike on Mayor Adams’ streets, who should be with us today. Swift and decisive action by Mayor Adams can reverse this trajectory. Real change, including meeting the mandates of the Streets Plan and supporting safety upgrades in all five boroughs, will save lives and spare countless New Yorkers from life-altering serious injuries. Mayor Adams: What are you waiting for? Will you be the mayor who protects New Yorkers from traffic violence or the one who lets it happen?”

This year, 26 New Yorkers have been killed while riding bikes – and more than 200 bike riders have been killed since Vision Zero began in 2014. More bike riders have been killed at this point in the year than during any other year under Vision Zero, and 2023 is on track for the second-most bike rider deaths in recorded history. 

Despite this, the Adams administration is missing key deadlines from the NYC Streets Plan and rolling back critical street improvement projects. The NYC Streets Plan and the individual street upgrades it requires are critical to achieving Vision Zero, New York City’s program to finally end traffic fatalities and serious injuries. 

Few of the promised 2023 bike lanes will be started or finished this year, and the Mayor’s Management Report shows that protected bike lane construction is down 22%.

The NYC Streets Plan went into effect in 2021, and legally requires the City of New York to build set amounts of protected bike lanes, bus lanes, and other critical safe streets infrastructure to save lives. Yet, the Adams administration is ignoring the law’s key requirements, and missing key deadlines last year and on track to miss even more again this year. Protected bike lanes save lives – every cyclist killed by a vehicle was riding on a street without a protected bike lane except for one – yet the City has only built 13.5 of the required 50 miles of lanes. 

At the same time, the City is reversing, diminishing, or delaying essential street improvement projects from McGuinness Boulevard to Fordham Road to Ashland Place to the Underhill Bike Boulevard. Planning and executing individual street upgrades on corridors across the five boroughs is critical to meeting the requirements of the NYC Streets Plan, and keeping all New Yorkers safe. 

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