All topics / Infrastructure and Sustainability / Department of Transportation
Average time to respond to high priority traffic signal defect and make safe (2-hour calls) (hours:minutes)
Maintain the City’s transportation infrastructure. — Repair the City’s street lights, traffic signs, and signals in a timely manner.
DOT attributes the Fiscal 2025 rise in traffic-signal repair response time to increasingly heavy storms and flash flooding across the five boroughs, which lengthened travel times for repair crews and added signal repairs. Preliminary Fiscal 2026 data through October 2025 shows response times continuing to run above the two-hour target, though the city has not yet published a specific explanation for the size of that year's increase.
Researched July 16, 2026 — NYC Department of Transportation, Fiscal 2025 Mayor's Management Report, NYC Department of Transportation, Fiscal 2026 Preliminary Mayor's Management Report
* Year to date — this fiscal year isn't complete, so it's not compared against prior years in the target/trend status above.
View as table
| Fiscal year | Actual | Target |
|---|---|---|
| FY22 | 1 hr 41 min | 2 hr |
| FY23 | 2 hr 7 min | 2 hr |
| FY24 | 1 hr 57 min | 2 hr |
| FY25 | 2 hr 4 min | 2 hr |
| FY26 (YTD) | 4 hr 16 min | 2 hr |
Why this is tracked
New York City's transportation network includes about 800 bridges and tunnels, along with thousands of miles of streets, that require ongoing preventive maintenance - drain cleaning, debris removal, masonry repair, and snow response - to stay safe and usable. A 2024 assessment found 118 bridge sections, representing nearly a fifth of all bridge roadway citywide, in poor condition, reflecting decades of aging infrastructure, much of it originally built in the early-to-mid 20th century. The City's ten-year capital strategy includes over $16 billion for bridge repair, replacement, and rehabilitation to address this backlog.
NYC DOT - Bridges, Are You Traveling Over Troubled NYC Bridges? - THE CITY
Source: Division of Traffic Operations – Signals Engineering and Street Lighting — via NYC Open Data: Mayor's Management Report, Agency Performance Indicators
Coverage shown: FY22–FY26, reported monthly.
Definition: The average number of hours it takes DOT contractors to repair and restore signal operation for defects requiring a two-hour response time. A repair can be temporary or permanent provided that the signal problem at the intersection is corrected and made safe.