Traffic Calming and Environmental Justice: New York City’s Neighborhood Slow Zones

Abstract

This paper examines New York City’s Neighborhood Slow Zones (NSZ) program in terms of environmental justice. The paper uses both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative analyses show that the areas where the zones are implemented are well represented in regarding environmental justice (low-income and minority) populations, and that risk exposure to traffic injury and traffic casualty counts are similar in NSZ and non-NSZ areas. The qualitative analysis shows that the program was structured in a way that included the participation of environmental justice communities and led to the siting of zones in such neighborhoods. These findings suggest that the NSZ program can address environmental justice’s goals of distributing environmental risk more equitably and including low-income and minority communities in planning processes.