Proposed Council Bill Adds Lighting to Elevated Structures

The proposed legislation would illuminate areas considered less safe at night. On September 10, 2026, Council Member Ty Hankerson introduced a bill (Int. No. 1043) that would require the Department of Transportation to ensure there is sufficient lighting for pathways under elevated structures such as bridges or overpasses (elevated train lines would not fall within the purview of this legislation). The bill clarifies “sufficient lighting” to mean an average level of illumination of 11 lux along the walking surface of the entire sidewalk underneath the structure.

To accomplish this objective, the bill’s requirements are twofold: First, a year after the legislation is effective, and every five years thereafter, the Department of Transportation must conduct an assessment of the lighting and produce a report to be published on their website and sent to the mayor and City Council speaker. The assessment process would involve observing the lighting under every elevated structure to determine whether there is sufficient lighting and, if not, whether it would be feasible to install lighting fixtures for adequate lighting. The report must include the methodology used and provide an explanation if installation of a lighting fixture is determined to not be feasible.

Second, if the assessor finds that such installation is feasible, the Department of Transportation must install the lighting fixtures within one year of making the determination that they are necessary under this law. The department would have three years to do so if this resulted from the first assessment required one year after the effective date.

Councilman Hankerson authored a Memorandum in Support of the legislation, highlighting how street lightning not only helps keep New Yorkers safe, but helps them feel safe as well. He argued that it is critically important to ensure that there is lighting under elevated structures to avoid an increase in fear, crime risk, and issues surrounding quality-of-life.

While the elevated structures themselves are under the authority of the state, as opposed to the city, Councilman Hankerson maintained that the city’s Department of Transportation can still study the lighting situation under those structures. “Just because an elevated structure belongs to the State doesn’t mean that New Yorkers should not have sufficient lighting,” Councilman Hankerson stated.

Councilman Hankerson was inspired by a late-night walk in his district in Queens, during which he “noticed none of our trestles have proper lighting,” and that it was “extremely dark,” making for an “extremely dangerous” situation.

Improved Lighting Broadly Supported in the City

Concerns over the sufficiency of lighting throughout the streets of New York are not new and inspired legislation to be enacted in late 2025, when the city council passed a bill requiring the Department of Transportation to install lighting fixtures on at least 300 commercial corridors per year.

After that bill was passed, one pedestrian told NY1 that “more lights up and down the streets would definitely help, because people, they get more antsy and more testy when it’s dark, and they feel like everybody can’t see them and there’s no eyes on them.”

That bill’s sponsor, Councilman Lincoln Restler, stated that “[a]dding lighting is an evidence-based approach to improving safety in our community. It’s worked in [New York City Housing Authority] developments across the city of New York. It can work on our commercial corridors.”

In 2016, the NYCHA installed safety lighting at several public housing sites. Then-Mayor Bill de Blasio supported the initiative and said that “[e]xterior safety lighting is one vital tool in the larger effort to decrease violence in public housing.”

Then-Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams praised the effort as well. “I called on NYCHA to help eliminate the darkness,” he said. He expressed optimism that 504 new lights installed at a Brooklyn public housing development “will dramatically improve public safety for police officers and community residents, preventing many crimes from ever occurring.”

Studies Link Increased Lighting with Reduced Crime

A recent Rutgers-Newark study discovered a substantial correlation between the sufficiency of lighting and the prevalence of crime, in that illuminating “crime hot spots” in Newark reduced violent crime in the city by 46 percent and burglaries by 58 percent. However, the effect was only short-term, demonstrating the need for proactive community efforts to reduce crime in the long run. Yet increased lighting was established to be an effective tool toward those ends.

Another study, published in May by Vital City, saw a significant reduction in serious crime, 35%, in housing developments in New York City after temporary lights were installed. The authors of the study explained: “[F]undamentally, better lighting means more life on the streets. Lighting creates a virtuous cycle, drawing residents outside to socialize and patronize local businesses, resulting in more ‘eyes on the street,’ which in turn puts the brakes on many forms of bad behavior.”

Overall, the broad support for improving pedestrian lighting, and the studies that provide an evidentiary basis for this objective, suggest a promising trajectory for Councilman Hankerson’s bill. It has been referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for a hearing.

By: Alan Weintraub

Alan is a New York Law School student, Class of 2028. This article is a product of New York Law School’s Legal Journalism course for Fall 2026.