Lower speed limit to 20 mph on village streets with a history of crashes and heavy traffic

Dobbs Ferry needs new, lower speed-limits on key streets with a history of crashes and heavy traffic. This legislation — introduced by Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assemblymember Abinanti in 2019 — will make our streets safer for our most vulnerable road users, including our young citizens who organized the Children's Walk to Slow the Cars near their elementary school in 2019. Just last month, a driver flipped a car over on Walgrove Avenue just steps from the elementary school. Our timing for this legislation couldn't be any better: so let's work together to get these laws passed!

We are truly so grateful for the overwhelming show of support by the Dobbs Ferry Board of Trustees, who passed a Home Rule Resolution affirming their commitment to the legislation accompanied by a request to the State and Assembly to lower speed limits to 20 mph on almost ALL of our village streets (Thank you to Mayor Rossillo and the Board of Trustees, especially Donna Cassell, the BOT Traffic Liaison.)

We also understand that the Department of Transportation requires a village-wide traffic study and a demonstrated history of traffic-calming interventions like speed humps, especially when a request is made village-wide. In the absence of these village-wide measures, our newly formed citizens' advocacy group, Our Streets Dobbs Ferry proposes that the following streets -- all with a history of crashes and high traffic volume -- are included in this new version of the legislation:

DOWNTOWN (downtown streets with heavy foot traffic, density of population, and heavy traffic flow)
—> Cedar St and Main St
—> Oak St, Elm St, Chestnut St, and Walnut St - intersects with Old Croton Aqueduct Trail; cut-through streets to train station
—> Palisade St, Livingston Ave, and High St. - cut-through streets to train station

STREETS NEAR SCHOOLS (heavy traffic, vulnerable road users)
—> Walgrove Ave, Bellewood Ave, and Estherwood Ave - traffic entering and leaving the elementary school campus and the Children's Village campus filters through these streets, where children as young as 8-years-old walk unaccompanied to school.
—> Beacon Hill Drive - children as young as 8-years-old walk unaccompanied to school through this alternative entrance to the elementary school campus; Beacon Hill is also a cut-through to Rivertowns Square / Saw-Mill Parkway entrance
—> Maple St and Belden Ave - residential streets adjacent to the Middle School and High School campus

CUT-THROUGH STREETS (heavy traffic)
—> Clinton Ave - cut-through street connecting Broadway (Dobbs Ferry) and Hastings-on-Hudson
—> Washington Ave, Lefurgy Ave, Virginia Ave, and Myrtle Ave - cut-through streets connecting Ashford Ave (Dobbs Ferry) and Irvington
—> Price St, Ogden Ave, and Ogden Place- cut-through streets connecting Ashford Ave with Rivertowns Square / Saw-Mill Parkway entrance
—> Hickory Hill Dr, Southfield Ave, and Northfield Ave - cut-through streets to the Ardsley Saw Mill Parkway entrance

* Existing 15 mph signage around speed humps should of course remain on our roadways

Since the legislation will be reintroduced in the New Year, this is the perfect time to envision a revised list of streets in advance of a reconvening Senate and Assembly. Our Streets Dobbs Ferry is heartened to hear that the Trustees have already demonstrated their support for almost ALL of the streets in Dobbs Ferry (with a few major exceptions including the through-ways of Broadway and Ashford avenues). We thank the Dobbs Ferry Board of Trustees and our legislators in the Assembly and Senate for their ongoing commitment to improving street safety in Dobbs Ferry — let's continue to work together to get these much-needed new laws passed!