NYC to make it harder to illegally park near crosswalks

Mayor Eric Adams announced this week that his administration will begin to install barriers near 1,000 intersections crosswalks across the Big Apple in a bid to improve pedestrian safety by cracking down on illegal parking.

Street safety advocates have pushed City Hall to take additional steps for years to keep the areas around crosswalks clear, arguing it will help cut down on the number of pedestrians struck by cars.

State law already makes it illegal to park within 20 feet of a crosswalk, but the regulation is widely ignored and often goes unenforced, leading to the new push to install planters and other barriers to keep cars out.

“I share the pains of the family members who have lost loved ones to the victims of vehicle crashes and violence,” Adams said during an event at City Hall on Thursday.

“And it is imperative that we take the right steps in the right directions on how we’re going to ensure that they stop.”

The administration said it now plans to install planters or other barriers at 1,000 intersections per year to make it harder for drivers to illegally park there, though at that rate it would take roughly four decades to roll out the program at all 40,000 intersections across the five boroughs.

Adams had already inked City Council legislation earlier that would require his Department of Transportation to study ‘daylighting’ intersections and eventually require officials to do a minimum of 100 crosswalks per year.

Jersey City, across the Hudson, has rolled out a similar program that officials say has been a crucial part of getting their pedestrian fatality count down to zero last year.

Officials say the program will be done using materials and supplies the DOT was purchasing anyways and would not be funded through programs targeted for budget cuts.

The new pledge comes on top of Adams commitment last year to rework 1,000 dangerous intersections following a spate of pedestrian fatalities and mounting criticism his top advisors were giving too much deference to drivers and local businesses by slowing down or rolling back planned bike and bus lanes.

Streetsblog, a pro-cycling publication, has published a series of stories highlighting how Adams’ chief advisor and political enforcer, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, has forced the DOT to rework or trim back already approved plans.