The crosswalk on the nook of McGuinness Boulevard and Bayard Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn — the location of a lethal hit-and-run on Could 18, 2021.
Photograph through Google Maps
In 2020, a 10-year-old boy was killed by a truck driver whereas strolling to high school along with his mom in Corona, Queens. In 2021, a driver killed one little one and severely injured one other in entrance of a college in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
In 2022, a 15-year-old lady was killed by a college bus driver in entrance of James Madison Excessive College in Sheepshead Bay. In 2023, 7-year-old Kamari Hughes was killed by an NYPD tow truck driver whereas strolling to high school along with his mom in Fort Greene. In 2024, a 10-year-old lady was killed by a driver after leaving college in South Williamsburg.
These heartbreaking tales mirror an unsettling reality: our metropolis has not but constructed streets which might be secure for youngsters. As a father to school-aged boys, I share the deep nervousness so many different New York mother and father maintain that in the future my children gained’t make it house safely.
However I even have hope, as a result of proper now, Speaker Adams has the chance to deliver a life-saving road security intervention to each road in our metropolis by advancing Intro 1138 to make common daylighting the legislation in New York Metropolis.
Daylighting – reclaiming one parking spot adjoining to crosswalks to enhance visibility for drivers and pedestrians – is an easy and efficient remedy that makes streets safer. Whether or not you’re strolling your children to high school, biking to work, or driving to the shop, daylighting makes navigating metropolis streets simpler.
When visibility is improved, drivers can higher perceive the factors of battle at an intersection, make sensible selections as they method, decelerate if one thing surprising occurs, and simply keep away from crashes.
This intervention is confirmed to work and is already a road security conference throughout america. Forty-four states have common daylighting legal guidelines, and it’s even the legislation right here in New York State. New York Metropolis has merely been allowed to choose out of the legislation, regardless of the intervention being a finest observe in road security.
In reality, simply throughout the Hudson River in Hoboken, NJ, elected officers credit score common daylighting as a most important motive why town hasn’t seen a visitors fatality in eight and a half years. Globally, world-leading cities are additionally leaning into daylighting. Paris, for instance, has pledged to sunlight each intersection within the metropolis with bodily infrastructure by 2026.
The most effective factor about common daylighting is that it’s a systemic resolution to a systemic downside. It’s unacceptable that our establishment is ready for deaths to occur earlier than we reply as a substitute of actively attempting to forestall them. Fairly than fixing intersections the place fatalities have occurred utilizing a piecemeal method, common daylighting delivers improved visibility to each intersection within the metropolis. Dad and mom in each borough will get as a lot peace of thoughts as I’ll in Brooklyn.
That is essential as a result of traditionally, security remedies aren’t used equitably throughout New York Metropolis. Extra pedestrians and motorists had been killed this yr in Brooklyn than in some other borough. This holds true for little one deaths. Of the six youngsters killed by drivers in 2025, 4 had been killed in Brooklyn.
Intro 1138 would mandate that every one intersections in New York Metropolis be daylighted and require bodily infrastructure to be added to 1,000 intersections a yr. The invoice has broad bipartisan assist from a majority of council members, together with members from all 5 boroughs. The invoice additionally aligns with my 2025 Complete Plan for Brooklyn, which requires the implementation of common daylighting and the usage of bodily obstacles to sunlight all intersections in Brooklyn. As of September 2024, there have been solely 45 daylighted intersections in Brooklyn.
Daylighting needs to be thought-about a fundamental design customary for each intersection within the metropolis; each time a piece crew touches a road nook is a chance to rebuild it with daylighting. There isn’t a motive to delay implementing this life-saving coverage or for any mum or dad to grieve one other preventable loss of life. No parking house is extra essential than a life.
As a father, I need what each mum or dad on this metropolis desires – the peace of thoughts of figuring out my little one is secure and can return house on the finish of the day. We can’t settle for a metropolis the place each college morning brings with it the danger of tragedy. This is a chance to create a legacy of lasting, significant change in New York Metropolis, and one which solely the Speaker has the ability to ship.
Speaker Adrienne Adams should deliver Intro 1138 to a vote and guarantee it passes with a veto-proof majority.
Antonio Reynoso is Brooklyn borough president.
