Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Holds Public Hearing on INT. 466-A and INT. 295-A

October 20, 2014

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here with us today. We have two pieces of legislation, both very important to this city, that we’ll be talking about today. First I want to start with Intro 466-A, which lowers the default city-wide speed limit to 25 miles per hour, meaning unless otherwise signified that the speed limit throughout New York City will be 25 miles per hour.

This legislation is sponsored by Councilmember David Greenfield and by Transportation Chair Ydanis Rodriguez. The new speed limit will take effect November 7 – that’s quite soon and we want to make sure that everyone helps us get the word out – November 7 on all streets, again, unless official signs say otherwise.

Now, we’ve talked a lot about Vision Zero this year. It’s a centerpiece of this administration’s work. It involves a number of city agencies, but it also involves all New Yorkers – and reducing speed is a key part of Vision Zero. We’re working to reduce speed by changing the speed limit, but it’s also the obligation of every New Yorker – every New Yorker who drives – to reduce speed via their own behavior.

The numbers are sobering. Last year – by one comparison, I think, that says it all – last year we had 291 traffic fatalities – 291 traffic fatalities – which is a tragedy in and of itself. When you compare it to a number that gets a lot more attention – homicides for last year – it’s striking how similar the numbers are – 333 homicides last year – very, very similar numbers – one got a lot of attention, one did not. Because of Vision Zero, we’re paying more attention to the traffic fatalities and doing something about it.

I’ve said in a lot of the moments when we’ve talked about Vision Zero that, literally, for all of us as New Yorkers, our lives are in each other’s hands and we have to think of it that way. We have to realize that reckless driving and speeding is fundamentally dangerous and can, in fact, be deadly.

The numbers, when it comes to crashes by speed limit, speak volumes. When you have a crash – God forbid – but it’s below 30 miles per hour, the results are very, very different. Accidents involving pedestrians at 25 miles per hour are half as likely to be fatal as those at 30 miles per hour or more. So we have an opportunity here to do something very tangible that will positively affect many, many New Yorkers – that will save lives. And we know that Vision Zero is an approach that has many, many elements. We know – even in the few months that we’ve started to fully implement this policy – we can see the results already. As of this last weekend, when you compare this year to-date versus last year to-date, pedestrian fatalities are down over 23 percent in this city and overall traffic fatalities are down more than eight percent – that’s before we put the default speed limit into place. The speed limit will now make our streets even safer.

This is a situation, which many many people contributed to this progress. We had real partners in Albany who joined into this effort energetically and helped us get the legislation we needed. That includes, of course, Governor Cuomo, Speaker Silver, Senator Jeff Klein, and Assemblymember Danny O’Donnell – all were crucial parts of achieving this progress.

And here in the city government, both in the executive branch and the legislative branch, there’s been tremendous energy and focus on Vision Zero and on reducing the speed limit. I want to thank Commissioner Trottenberg and everyone at the DOT – represented well today by First Deputy Commissioner Lori Ardito. I want to thank Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and all the members of the council – in particular, thank Transportation Chair Rodriguez and Councilmember Greenfield. And beyond the elected officials and the appointed officials, there was an extraordinary citizen movement and, as with most things in history, change comes from the grassroots. And so, the many families who stood up – so many of them families who have experienced tragedy and took that tragedy and turned it into action – it’s always striking to me how difficult that is to do but how noble it is to do as well. So, Families for Safe Streets leading the way, so many individual families that made it their business to get this legislation passed, that made it personal in the best sense, all the wonderful advocacy organizations who played a role in this victory – I want to thank them all.

So a lot of people came together to bring us to this day and I’d like to give recognition to the council members who are part of this effort. We’re joined here by Councilmember Mark Levine, who’s been a great ally on Vision Zero and so many other elements of the work we do, and I want to thank him – just replaying a week or so ago – thank him for the extraordinary work he’s done on park’s equity, which is a great step forward for this city – so, thank you very much.

And I know, again, the particular credit goes to Councilmember Greenfield and Councilmember Rodriguez. Now, they are not present at this point in time, unless my eyes deceive me. So we’re going to go ahead – we’ll hold for them, and if they get here in time, they’ll get to say something. But, in the meantime, we have only one person signed up – is that right? And he has a lot to say, but he has two minutes to say it and I know he can do it. I’d like to welcome Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives. 

[Paul Steely White speaks]

Mayor: Excellent – I thank you and Lori Ardito will take back that concept to DOT, where they’re working furiously on the 10-year capital budget. I want to thank Paul – we’ve known each other now over a decade and many a times talked through these issues – and sometimes at our neighborhood café, where all great things happen. And thank you for the many good conversations we’ve had over the years – they’re more and more turning into action. And I definitely – beyond the capital question, on the previous point about the vehicles that we either own or regulate – I think you’re right. We have to set the pace – as the old saying goes, physician heal thyself – and we intend to do that. We’re training city employees, we’re setting a high standard – we’re certainly setting a high standard for the taxi industry – and I think that difference will be felt.

With that – I don’t know if our – I will stall if our council members are coming any second now.

Unknown 1: [inaudible]

Mayor: What’s that?

Unknown 1: [inaudible]

Mayor: I don’t have to stall.

Unknown 1: [inaudible]

Mayor: Okay, but if they join in later, we’ll give them a chance to speak after the fact. Okay, I will say a few words in Spanish about this piece of legislation, and then we’re going to put it aside and talk about the next piece of legislation.

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

Sometimes, my Italian invades my Spanish and makes it – you know, so we have a moment where the Italian takes over and I have to push it back and get back to the Spanish – my apologies.

Okay, let’s now turn to Intro 295-A. And this is really, very good news for the city of New York because we all care deeply about the environment, we care about reducing congestion, we care about increasing the amount of mass transit and the amount of usage of mass transit. The struggle in so many cases is how to practically get all that done. Well this piece of legislation actually, in a very meaningful, immediate, practical way, goes to all those points.

Intro 295-A requires businesses with 20 or more full-time employees to offer federal tax-exempt transit benefits. The sponsor of this bill is actually standing here – Councilmember Dan Garodnick, thank you for your leadership on this issue. Now, the fact is federal law allows employees to use $130 a month of pre-tax income to pay for transit – up to $130 a month of pre-tax income to pay for transit. And this allows the exemption of both the employer and the employee of – it allows them both to exempt payroll taxes.

This benefits all New Yorkers who participate by reducing transit costs. It particularly helps families who are struggling because it means extra money in their pocket. On average, we estimate a typical family would have $443 more in their pocket by taking advantage of this opportunity. And it’s our goal to not only further a cleaner environment and more use of mass transit – less congestion, as I mentioned – but also to address the problems of inequality in all we do. Anything that allows hardworking people to have some more money in their pockets so they can get by in this expensive city is a step in the right direction.

There’s a positive element for businesses that participate as well. It saves typically – the estimated average is it saves $103 per employee in terms of the tax burden of that business.

So this is a win-win-win and – we’re certain – will help to encourage more use of mass transit, less use of cars, and help to give us a cleaner environment.

I’d like to first welcome the commissioner who’s going to – as she’s been doing with many things lately – be in charge of implementing this. It seems like pretty much 90 percent of what we do gets sent to Julie Menin – that means you must be good at what you do. But I want to thank Julie Menin for her energetic leadership of the Department of Consumer Affairs and I know she will take to this as she has with so many other areas and spread the gospel to the people of this city about the good that this can do for them. Julie –

[Commissioner Julie Menin, Department of Consumer Affairs, speaks]   

Mayor: Thank you very much. Well if – on the administrative side – executive side of government, Julie Menin is always willing to take on more responsibilities for DCA and more important areas to provide enforcement. I can say the parallel is Dan Garodnick, who never met a good piece of legislation he didn’t like and works tirelessly on the legislative front in the Council – and this is certainly a big feather in his cap to help bring forward such an important piece of legislation for all New Yorkers. I’d like to welcome Councilmember Dan Garodnick.

[Councilmember Dan Garodnick speaks]

Mayor: Thank you. Alright, now – because we are creative and flexible in government, we’re going to do a little programming alteration here. Chairman of the Transportation Committee Ydanis Rodriguez will come up and speak to this piece of legislation – and if he wants, he can speak about the pervious one as well. And then we’re going to bring up Councilmember Greenfield to speak about the previous legislation as well. And then we’re going to sign the one before us now, and what we’ll do on the first bill is we’re going to hold that over a few days and sign it at a separate gathering.

Okay. So Councilmember Rodriguez has been, again, a crucial ally on a number of fronts as Chair of Transportation, but on many other issues as well, and I want to thank him for the leading role he’s played on both pieces of legislation before us today. Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez –

[Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez speaks]    

Mayor: Thank you very much. Councilmember David Greenfield – I can say because I watched this carefully – was way ahead of the curve on this issue and he was recognizing early on how we had to address the question of speed limits to really get at the heart of the matter of public safety in this city. I want to thank him for his tremendous cooperation and energy that he’s put into the issue. We came along as a new administration, had a lot of ideas – he had already been blazing the trail and his impulse was immediately to join in with us and help us figure out how to perfect our effort. So as a prime sponsor today of Intro 466-A, I think he has a lot to be proud of. This is a historic day for New York City and certainly a culmination of a vision that he’s had for a long time. Councilmember Greenfield –

[Councilmember David Greenfield speaks]

Mayor: There will be no rebuttal on that one, Paul. [Laughs]. Thank you very much, David – and thank you for the faith you had in this administration – and we did get done together what you worked on for so long. Okay, now, forgive me that we’ve moved back and forth a little bit within this subject matter – back to Intro 295-A. We have three individuals who would like to speak to the legislation.

[Mayor de Blasio introduces various advocates]

[Various advocates speak]

Mayor: Thank you. Okay, just a few words in Spanish.

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Spanish]

With that, I’m now going to gather everyone up here over to sign Intro 295-A. Again, we’re going to later in the coming days sign 466-A – that will be a separate event – but right now let’s all gather together and sign 295-A into law.

[Applause]