--- title: NYC Speed Limit Healthy Safe: Lower description: The difference between a car traveling 25 mph and 30 mph may be the difference between life and death. canonical: https://time.com/3568281/nyc-speed-limit/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-11T14:42:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:17:35.049Z article:section: Health og:title: Lower Speed Limits Save Lives and Make Cities Healthier og:description: Will the rest of the country follow New York? og:url: https://time.com/3568281/nyc-speed-limit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lower Speed Limits Save Lives and Make Cities Healthier twitter:description: Will the rest of the country follow New York? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # New York's New Speed Limit Means a Healthier City > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Nov 11, 2014 2:42 PM UTC  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Nov 11, 2014 2:42 PM UTC The difference between traveling 25 and 30 miles per hour may seem minute for the average car driver. The faster speed would save you about five minutes in a trip down the length of Manhattan. But the difference is profound if you’re hit by a car–maybe even the difference between life and death. In effort to curb traffic fatalities, New York City lowered its default speed limit to 25 mph effective Nov. 7\. It’s a move that, if properly enforced, experts say could inspire similar moves in other urban areas across the country—making a dent in the more than 4,000 pedestrians killed by cars each year in the U.S. “All eyes are on New York right now to see if we can tame our infamously mean streets,” says Paul Steely White, executive director of New York-based Transportation Alternatives. The move is perhaps the biggest effort yet from Mayor Bill DeBlasio to reduce the number of traffic-related deaths in New York City. Hundreds of New Yorkers die annually in traffic accidents and, in recent years, a number of highly publicized deaths have inspired public relations campaigns. Most dramatically, DeBlasio recently introduced Vision Zero, a program designed to eliminate traffic fatalities altogether in New York. The speed limit reduction plays a key role in Vision Zero, though no one expects the city to change overnight. Police first need to enforce the rule, something some city-dwellers think isn’t likely. But if it’s enforced, the lower speed limit could have profound effects. A car that hits a pedestrian while traveling 30 mph is twice as likely to kill that person as if it were traveling 25 mph. And it’s eight times as likely to kill a pedestrian than if it were traveling 20 mph, the average top speed that a sprinting human might collide into another object. “The five-mile per hour difference makes a huge difference between life and death,” says White. “Moving forward, in terms of enforcement, it’s a question of whether we’ll save dozens of lives or scores or perhaps hundreds if we do enforce the speed limit.” Slowing the roads may being about other unintended consequences, too. “What we’re trying to say is this is not just about changing speed, it’s about changing what goes on in people’s heads,” said John Whitelegg, a professor at the University of York who has helped implement programs to lower the speed limit in Germany and the United Kingdom. Whitelegg said that in the places he’s worked, researchers have found links between lower speed limits and increased physical activity. In turn, rates of obesity and diabetes are also down. “There’s a tremendous value to being able to walk to work, walk to school,” White said. “Dare I say, that’s becoming the new American dream.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3568281/nyc-speed-limit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3568281/nyc-speed-limit/"},"headline":"New York's New Speed Limit Means a Healthier City","datePublished":"2014-11-11T14:42:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:17:35.049Z","description":"A car traveling 30 mph that hits a pedestrian is eight times as likely to kill that person than if it were traveling 20 mph","url":"https://time.com/3568281/nyc-speed-limit/","keywords":["Obesity","New York City","safety"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/obesity/","name":"Obesity"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3568281/nyc-speed-limit/","name":"New York's New Speed Limit Means a Healthier City"}}]}] ```