With life-saving school zone speed camera law in danger of expiring, Mayor urges expansion bill that will allow cameras along corridors like 9th Street, where they are currently banned
With the City’s School Zone Speed Camera program set to expire in Albany next month, Mayor de Blasio today called on the State legislature to immediately reauthorize and expand the life-saving program. Standing at the site of a deadly crash in Park Slope that took the lives of two children and an unborn baby, the mayor unveiled a safer street design but urged Albany to do its part to protect kids in school zones. Under legislation now being considered, the number and coverage area of cameras would be expanded -- and allowed for the first time along corridors like 9th Street, where they are currently barred.
“We are doing our part with a redesign of 9th Street to reduce speeding and make it safer. Now we need Albany to its part. We need school zone speed camera legislation extended and expanded immediately to prevent future tragedies on our streets. Speed cameras save lives,” said Mayor de Blasio.
DOT’s proposed redesign, which includes expanded pedestrian access and protected bicycle lanes, will be released at a community workshop tonight. It will be presented to Community Board 6 in June, with installation slated this summer following community feedback.
“For the last few months, DOT’s planners, designers and engineers have been hard at work coming up with a safe and smart redesign of 9th Street,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “Under the Mayor’s leadership, we will expand pedestrian space, and also add safer crossings and protected bicycle lanes. We look forward to getting feedback in June from the local community board, stakeholders and elected officials about our proposed plans. At the same time, we also look forward to making our closing argument in Albany next month for school-zone speed cameras, which have been such a critical component in our Vision Zero efforts that have helped New York City buck national trends -- with fatality declines for four straight years.”
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. For example, despite three different schools located along 7th or 8th Streets in Park Slope, no cameras are now allowed along 9th Street, which students from those schools walk across every day.
· Extend the program until 2022
Comprehensive Redesign of 9th Street (Prospect Park West to Third Avenue)
- Corridor redesign focuses on improved pedestrian and cyclist safety.
- Protected bicycle lanes for six avenue blocks (nearly one-mile distance) with shortened crossings and slow-turn treatments at intersections.
- Modified loading regulations to reduce double parking.
- New narrower cross sections reduce speeding while maintaining vehicle flow and emergency access.
Following the March crash along 9th Street that claimed the lives of two children and an unborn baby and seriously injured several others, 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 drivers to lose control of their vehicle.
State Senator Jose Peralta said, "It is vital that we increase, once and for all, the number of speed safety cameras in school areas across the city. The time for excuses is over. There is plenty of evidence that shows that this program has been successful since pedestrian, cyclist and motorist-related crashes have been reduced by 15% where speed cameras are installed. My proposal to increase the number of speed cameras has only one goal: Protect schoolchildren and New Yorkers in general. We must act before the current school zone speed camera program expires this summer, so children will not be at risk when they return to school in September. I applaud the Mayor and DOT for their efforts to increase road and pedestrian safety across the city, and I urge my colleagues in the State Senate to pass my bill to increase the number of speed cameras."
"We must commit to work together to redesign our city's unsafe streets so we can prevent future tragedies and protect our children," said Assembly Member Dan Quart. "Speed cameras are a proven, effective way to save lives and I'm proud to cosponsor legislation that will expand Vision Zero to more school zones and encourage safe driving."
EDITOR'S NOTE:
While we agree something must be done to stop speeding, a speed camera does not stop reckless driving. The only proven way to stop reckless driving is to have more police officers on patrol to catch abusive speeders, and those who drive recklessly to get them off the road which a speed camera does not do.
We ask the two legislators whose comments we left in this press release from Mayor de Blasio if they know just how the speed camera program came about.
This reporter was at the public school in State Senator Jeff Klein's district where then Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the NYCDOT claimed it registered over 90 percent of the drivers going over the (then) 30 MPH speed limit. It was assumed that the DOT surveyed the heavily traveled Riverdale Avenue in front of the elementary school. When I asked just what street was surveyed, I was told a different street Fieldston Road several blocks away from this school was surveyed. The road had four reasons for the high rate of speeding. It led to an entrance of the Henry Hudson Parkway, it led to the private community of Fieldston, it led to the private Riverdale Country school, and fewer vehicles drove on the surveyed part of Fieldston Road. All four factors as to why speeding would occur.
Mayor Bloomberg knew how to use figures to his advantage, not tell the whole story, and let people assume what you want them to think. Mayor de Blasio is attempting to do the same thing. It should also be the reckless drivers that he goes after, and the only way is to have more police officers patrolling the streets.
Don't think what Mayor de Blasio wants you to think, because speed cameras can not, and do not get reckless drivers off the road. Only a police officer can do that.
