Extension and expansion of speed cameras to protect more schools was included in Assembly one-house budget bill, officials and families urge Senate and Governor to act
Mayor de Blasio joined crash survivors, victims’ families, seniors and elected officials on the steps of City Hall to demand leaders in Albany include an expansion of New York City’s school zone speed enforcement camera program in the final state budget by April 1. With the program slated to expire in June, the City and advocates are seeking not just its extension, but major improvements.
Where installed, speed cameras have been proven to reduce speeding in New York City school zones by 63 percent, with injuries to pedestrians dropping 23 percent. But under the current restrictions, 75 percent of the children who were killed or severely injured in traffic were hit at locations or at times where the City can’t legally use a camera. For example, cameras cannot be installed on 9thStreet in Park Slope—the site of a crash that killed two young children this month. The New York State Assembly included reforms in its one-house budget bill that increase the number of school zones where cameras are allowed, and allow them to be placed on more dangerous streets.
“New Yorkers are tired of asking for the same thing year after year and getting nothing in return,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “How many more people must be killed before Albany passes common sense legislation proven to save lives? Enough is enough. The time is now to extend and expand our speed cameras program – we cannot afford to wait another day.”
“After four years of declining fatalities of Vision Zero, we know that speed cameras have saved lives, but the law authorizing New York City’s speed camera program expires this summer, putting us at a crucial juncture,” said Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “Most crashes happen in areas and during hours when speed cameras can’t operate. To continue the progress we have made, we not only need Albany action to allow speed cameras on more high-crash streets close to schools, we need to expand the hours when cameras can operate. As the Mayor made clear last week, we need even more enforcement tools to prevent tragic crashes like the one this month in Park Slope – but Albany can help us meet that urgent need by authorizing speed cameras as part of this budget.”
“When our leaders in Albany fail to take traffic violence seriously, people die. This deadly epidemic that killed my son has taken the lives of 1,000 New Yorkers since the City started piloting speed cameras in 2014, and caused unimaginable injuries to hundreds of thousands of others, said Amy Cohen, Founding Member of Families for Safe Streets. “Speed safety cameras work – like a vaccine. They protect our children. And they also help change the culture of reckless driving and protect all New Yorkers. The Assembly has done their part and included the bill in their proposed budget. Now we need the Senate and Governor Cuomo to stand up and pass this life-saving measure now, before others are killed or seriously injured.”
The Mayor was joined by his Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, NYPD Chief Thomas Chan, Comptroller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Letitia James, various city council members, Transportation Alternatives, Families for Safe Streets, the United Federation of Teachers, AARP and additional advocates.
Key Reforms to the Speed Enforcement Camera Program:
· Authorize the City to install speed cameras at an additional 150 school zones—more than double the current number.
· Revise the definition of a school zone to allow DOT to address speeding on streets that are near a school, as opposed to only the street or streets on which a school is located.
· Extend the program until 2022
Following this month’s crash that claimed the lives of two children in Park Slope, the City is also pushing reforms in Albany that will escalate fines and suspend the vehicle registrations of repeat speeding and red-light running offenders, and require physicians to notify the DMV following medical events that could cause a driver to lose control of their vehicle.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
The reason Mayor de Blasio is looking for escalating fines for repeat speed camera offenders is because the speed camera program is not working as it was planned. It only shows that drivers are receiving multiple violations without any penalty as if a police officer was to stop a motorist for speeding. The real answer is to have more police giving out speeding tickets which result in higher fines, points on a drivers license, and possible suspension of driving privileges. The driver is caught by a police officer and must appear in traffic court, not the car caught by a camera.
The reason Mayor de Blasio is looking for escalating fines for repeat speed camera offenders is because the speed camera program is not working as it was planned. It only shows that drivers are receiving multiple violations without any penalty as if a police officer was to stop a motorist for speeding. The real answer is to have more police giving out speeding tickets which result in higher fines, points on a drivers license, and possible suspension of driving privileges. The driver is caught by a police officer and must appear in traffic court, not the car caught by a camera.
It should be noted that the speed camera program came into effect with the help of the State Senate Independent Conference Leader Senator Jeff Klein. The introduction was in Senator Klein's district at PS 81 in the Riverdale section of the Bronx with then Mayor Michael Bloomberg, State Senator Jeff Klein, and parents of PS 81.
The Department of Transportation stated that they surveyed a street where over ninety percent of the drivers were clocked at speeds over the legal speed limit. It was thought that the street surveyed by the DOT was Riverdale Avenue in front of PS 81, a heavily traveled street by cars, buses, and trucks.
Senator Klein did two of his own surveys of Riverdale Avenue in front of PS 81, and the results were twenty-five percent lower than those of the NYCDOT. Mind you there were still speeding vehicles in front of PS 81.
At the announcement I asked when and where the DOT did its survey, and I was told that they did not survey Riverdale Avenue in front of PS 81, but Fieldston Road behind the Russian Mission (housed in Riverdale near PS 81), near the entrance to the Henry Hudson Parkway, and at the entrance to the private community of Fieldston. On that section of Fieldston Road the DOT did survey, three speed bumps were installed within a one-hundred foot area heading to and from the parkway and private community of Fieldston.
At the announcement I asked when and where the DOT did its survey, and I was told that they did not survey Riverdale Avenue in front of PS 81, but Fieldston Road behind the Russian Mission (housed in Riverdale near PS 81), near the entrance to the Henry Hudson Parkway, and at the entrance to the private community of Fieldston. On that section of Fieldston Road the DOT did survey, three speed bumps were installed within a one-hundred foot area heading to and from the parkway and private community of Fieldston.
