In February New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued Executive Order 39, outlining a comprehensive approach to addressing truck and bus safety for the city’s fleet and contracted units. Under the new executive order, and for the first time in the city’s history, city contractors will have new safety requirements, including preparing fleet safety plans, increasing driver training, adopting telematics, and adding 360-degree cameras to mitigate the impacts of visual impairments for operators. Mayor Adams also ordered that all new trucks procured by the City of New York for use by city employees will be required to have 360-degree cameras or high-visibility designs. The executive order fulfills Mayor Adams’ commitment to enhance city contractor fleet safety as a part of a broad new street safety initiative, which included efforts to make thousands of New York City intersections safer. Additionally, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has begun including traffic violence statistics in its regular CompStat reporting.
“Traffic safety is public safety, and our administration is doubling down on our efforts to make streets safe places for pedestrians, cyclists, delivery workers, drivers, and everyone else using our streets,” said Mayor Adams. “The executive order I’m issuing today will help equip the vehicles that ‘Get Stuff Done’ for New Yorkers with the latest technologies and features to be as safe as possible. New Yorkers deserve safe streets, and we’re delivering for them again today.”
“New York must be a national leader in establishing safety on the road,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi. “This executive order, establishing new safety guardrails for the city’s fleet, will go a long way in making that a reality — making meaningful progress in our Vision Zero goals with safety enhancements for over 23,000 trucks and buses traveling through New York City.”
“This executive order to expand safety requirements for certain city vehicles moves New York closer to eliminating the behavior that can cause roadway injuries and deaths,” said NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban. “Traffic safety is an integral component of the NYPD’s overall public safety strategy, and it will remain so through this administration.”
“Today’s announcement is a major step towards safer streets for New Yorkers, and is a big win for our city,” said New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) Commissioner Dawn M. Pinnock. “We are proud to be a part of the Adams administration and see safety strategies, like these, move from inception to execution. By codifying these requirements, we are taking a holistic approach to innovate fleet safety technologies, installing new safeguards, and utilizing training and fleet planning to help keep our bustling streets safe from automotive incidents.”
“A key piece of delivering street safety is ensuring the vehicles on our roads are as safe as possible—not only for their operators but also for the pedestrians and cyclists on our streets,” said New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “These measures will bring important safety gains to our streets by requiring city vehicles, and those of the city’s contractors, to be held to high safety standards under Vision Zero. We thank Mayor Adams, DCAS Commissioner Dawn M. Pinnock, and all of our agency partners and contractors for their commitment to reducing traffic fatalities in New York City.”
The executive order codifies training requirements for all city fleet drivers and city contractors to participate in safe driver training. Furthermore, effective July 1, 2024, all city contractors will be required to develop fleet safety plans, enroll drivers in the State License Event Notification System, and report all crashes that occur while doing business on behalf of the city. Additional details of the executive order include:
- The required adoption of telematics that tracks location and speed, and to report this information to city agencies when performing city contract services. As required by Executive Order 41 of 2019, the city’s fleet has already been utilizing telematics to inform safety improvements. Local Law 32 requires tracking for contracted school buses. This executive order will extend the requirement to all city contracts.
- A requirement for city fleet vehicles and trucks from city contractors to install 360-degree cameras or invest in high-visibility trucks. DCAS has installed 360-degree cameras on 2,000 city trucks and will procure high-vision trucks whenever available. These 360-degree cameras and high-vision trucks play a critical role in addressing visual obstructions for truck drivers that can place pedestrians, bicyclists, children, and all vulnerable road users at risk.
An estimated 5,600 contracted trucks will be impacted by this executive order. The city operates nearly 7,500 trucks and 10,000 contracted school buses, resulting in safety enhancements for over 23,000 trucks and buses traveling throughout New York City daily.
Additionally, late last year, Mayor Adams announced that the NYPD would begin integrating traffic fatality data on its CompStat 2.0 online dashboard, a resource that provides New Yorkers with weekly statistics that reflect the administration’s progress on fighting overall crime and promoting traffic safety. The new category — broken down by patrol borough, precinct, day of the week, and time-of-day — now puts traffic violence on par with violent crime and elevates the administration’s efforts to reduce traffic-related injuries and deaths in every neighborhood. Further, the now-launched NYPD online Traffic Data section contains statistical information about moving violation summonses, motor vehicle collisions, and instances of leaving-the-scene-of-an-incident, and provides access to the NYPD’s raw feed of traffic-related data used to populate the searchable “Traffic Safety Forum.”
“DCAS is leading the way nationally in safety improvements to its fleet, including truck side-guards, telematics, intelligent speed assistance, and truck surround cameras,” said DCAS Deputy Commissioner and New York City Chief Fleet Officer Keith Kerman. “With this executive order, Mayor Adams extends the DCAS Safe Fleet Planto city contractors, ensuring that all who do work on the city’s behalf and that are funded by the city — whether with in-house fleet or contracted vehicles — are operating in the safest possible manner. DCAS looks forward to working with all our partner agencies to implement this Vision Zero priority.”
“The new safety requirements in this executive order holds city fleets and contractors accountable,” said New York State Senator Roxanne J. Persaud. “I applaud Mayor Adams for this comprehensive approach to addressing truck and bus safety and keeping residents’ safety first.”
“I have been proud to partner with Mayor Adams on several comprehensive initiatives to end traffic violence in our city,” said New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. “Today, the city takes the next step by requiring that the City Fleet abide by additional safety requirements, including training for drivers and technology upgrades. In the state legislature, I authored original legislation regulating e-bikes, requiring them to be registered with the State DMV and have license plates, insurance, and regular inspections. With these joint initiatives at the city and state levels, we will make the roads of the Big Apple the safest of any big city in America.”
“Just one injury or death on our streets is far too many, and it’s incumbent on all of us in government to leave no stone unturned in making our streets safer for our families, however they use them,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. “Today’s announcement will prevent needless injuries or loss of life, both in the form of these new safety requirements and the inclusion of traffic violence statistics in CompStat — allowing us to better track, study and address crashes going forward. Thank you to the administration for putting forth this crucial effort.”
“Today’s announcement is a significant step forward towards ensuring our streets are safe for pedestrians, cyclists, drivers and anyone else using our city’s roads by equipping our city fleet drivers and vehicles with the tools to be safe on our city’s roads,” said Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson. “I want to thank Mayor Adams and his team for their continued commitment to prioritizing traffic safety and reducing traffic violence. I look forward to our continued work together to keep our streets safe.”
“When it comes to street safety, it’s imperative that New York City’s government lead by example. So many cars and trucks on our city’s streets are contracted vehicles working for the city, so it’s critical that these vehicles and these drivers will be held to new and higher standards when it comes to safety,” said Danny Harris, executive director, Transportation Alternatives. “We look forward to working with DCAS and other city agencies to ensure safer fleets and safer streets all across New York.”
“Families for Safe Streets is heartened to see the city strengthening its street safety standards for the contractors it hires,” said Kate Brockwehl, policy and advocacy committee co-chair, Families for Safe Streets. “We are particularly excited the city will be requiring fleet safety technology like surround cameras. We know these safety solutions will save lives in the five boroughs.”
“Today’s executive order creates a framework that will not only dramatically influence road safety in New York City, but that will positively affect purchasing decisions in cities across the country,” said Peter Goldwasser, executive director, Together for Safer Roads. “By focusing on the issue of high vision trucks, New York City is sending a clear message that truck design matters and that safer alternatives — trucks that provide superior direct vision — should be the new standard. The issue of blind zones and cab design is one that Together for Safer Roads is fully committed to and one that we look forward to continuing to partner on with New York City, including utilizing our Direct Vision 5 Star Rating System. Congratulations to DCAS for continuing to innovate and lead on road safety.”
