Residents frustrated with the city’s progress in taming traffic took matter into their own hands over the weekend and installed 110 rogue speed limit signs in neighborhoods from the Upper West Side to Fort Greene.
The metal signs proclaimed “20 Is Plenty” and mimicked real traffic signs.
The actual speed limit on city streets is 30 mph.
Keegan Stephan, an organizer of the effort, said residents acted because they were tired of waiting for the city.
“These communities knew their streets were dangerous and asked the city to fix them, but were told no or not yet by the last administration,” he said.
The signs were donated by a company called Road Traffic Signs, which creates genuine traffic signs for municipalities but also sells to individuals.
The residents came from eleven communities that have applied for neighborhood “slow zones” — but haven’t yet had their speed limits lowered or received other traffic calming devices such as speed bumps.
They included local children and parents, as well as members of advocacy groups Right of Way and Make Brooklyn Safer.
Last year, 74 communities applied for just 15 “slow zone” slots.
The city has said it will create 25 new slots, but officials haven’t selected the locations as of now.
Stephan, a Right of Way official, said many of the communities waiting for the zones have suffered pedestrian fatalities.
“If you look at this recent slew of traffic deaths, they all occurred in neighborhoods that had applied for slow zones– Noshat Nashian in Jackson Heights, Cooper Stock on the Upper West Side, Lucian Merryweather in Fort Greene, Sammy Cohen Eckstein in Park Slope, and so many more,” he said.
Antonio Ramirez, 40, was struck and killed in Washington Heights last year by a hit-and-run driver, two days after th city nixed a “slow zone” request on Audubon Avenue.
“I believe if the driver was going slower, my husband may have survived,” his wife Maria Sanchez, 26, recently told the Post.
Right of Way installed similar unauthorized 20 mph signs last November on Prospect Park West, where a 12-year-boy was killed.
His mother, Amy Cohen, helped raise the new signs last weekend.
The Department of Transportation, which removed the illegal signs last year, plans to yank the new ones as well, sources said. Putting up a sign is a violation, but the NYPD said they will use discretion when addressing the matter.
A DOT spokesman said safety is the agency’s top concern and it is committed to installing more “slow zones” in the city. “These important discussions are ongoing, and we welcome input from community members on this important initiative,” said spokesman Nick Mosquera.
Hilda Cohen, 43, an architectural project manager and Fort Greene mom of two said she took part in the action because vehicles are moving too fast.
“A car traveling at 20 mph, there’s a 95 percent chance you’ll survive,” she said. “If you’re hit at 30, 40 you’re more likely to die.”