Senate Bill S445

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S445

SPONSOR: HOYLMAN-SIGAL
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to traffic
regulations for parking or standing vehicles in cities having a popu-
lation in excess of one million

 
PURPOSE:

Improve Pedestrian safety at all Intersections of traffic.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one amends paragraph 2 of subdivision (a) of section 1642 of the
vehicle and traffic law relating to traffic regulations to remove the
daylighting exemption for cities having a population in excess of one
million.

Section two is the effective date.

              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

A recent study by the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Corpo-
ration (PHNDC) from November of 2023 has found that not a single inter-
section of the thickly settled neighborhood of Prospect Heights, Brook-
lyn, followed state daylighting laws. Daylighting, which bans parking
within 20 feet of crosswalks, is a safety measure that increases visi-
bility of pedestrians as they cross the street.  After the untimely
deaths of two individuals at intersections in the vicinity in 2023, one
of whom was a 7-year-old child crossing near his school, a City Council
bill was introduced to require daylighting at all intersections within a
half-mile of a school. All 54 intersections of the Prospect Heights
neighborhood are within a half mile of a school, and this is true of
many densely populated neighborhoods in New York City. The study found
that these deaths were preventable because visibility was impaired by
the lack of daylighting. In fact, the intersections along Vanderbilt
Avenue in Prospect Heights ranked among the top 10% of Brooklyn streets
for persons killed or being badly injured from 2016 to 2020. Had these
intersections complied with the state daylighting laws pedestrian visi-
bility would have not been a factor in traffic violence.

For years, New York City has been exempted from the state's daylighting
law and that exemption is no longer tenable. This bill would repeal that
exemption.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2023-24: S.9769 Referred to Transportation

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Act takes effect immediately