Recently, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio signed close to a dozen bills designed to improve traffic safety in New York.

These pieces of legislation are the newest addition to Vision Zero, a groundbreaking plan to reduce and eliminate traffic related deaths across the five boroughs.

The plan also involves redesigning the intersection at Northern Blvd. and 61st in Woodside and other intersections that have been notoriously dangerous.

The intersection now has big signs reading “Vision Zero,” “Drive Safely,” and “Obey Traffic Laws.” It also has brand new medians in order for motorists to see pedestrians better and vice versa.

Vision Zero and this blitz of traffic safety legislation are all coming off the heels of a tragic, December car accident killing an 8-year-old boy.

Young Noshat Nahian was walking with his 11-year-old sister to school one morning when he was struck and killed by the back wheels of a turning truck while crossing the street.

The Department of Transportation revealed that 125 pedestrians were killed along Northern Blvd. since 2009.

The bills enhance traffic data collection, codify engineering commitments, and enhance penalties for reckless driving, speeding, and other kinds of dangerous driving.

The Mayor said: “We have promised the people of this city that we will use every tool we have to make streets safer … Today is another step on our path to fulfilling that promise, and sparing more families the pain of losing a son, a daughter, or a parent in a senseless tragedy.”

Similarly, legislators in Albany recently passed legislation allowing the city to lower its default speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph.

Be careful! With all of this legislation and a decreased default speed limit on the horizon, be sure to drive safely or you may find yourself face to face with a NY traffic ticket.