Speed shocker
School cams zap 132,000 racing by — but tix nixed
Speed cameras have caught 132,000 drivers racing through school zones since July 25 – and thanks to the state Legislature, not one of them has been ticketed.
Mayor de Blasio released the sobering statistic Monday in what his office called its first “status report” since the city was forced to stop fining vehicle owners whose cars were photographed breaking the speed limit on streets near schools.
The city can’t use the cameras to issue tickets until the Legislature passes a new law allowing it to do so.
But the city can still use the cameras to monitor speeding motorists. And between July 25 and Aug. 10, those cameras clocked 132,253 drivers zooming more than 10 mph over the speed limit during school hours.
“It’s astounding how many people speed when they think they can get away with it,” de Blasio said on his weekly appearance on NY1.
“People have to face consequences,” de Blasio said. “They have to know, if they’re speeding where there may be children crossing the streets at school, that somethings going to happen — you can’t just get away with that.”
The eye-popping number of speeders didn’t shock Marco Conner, legislative and legal director for Transportation Alternatives.
“It’s a lot, but it’s not really that surprising,” Conner said. “In 2017 the speed cameras in 140 school zones altogether issued about 1.4 million speeding tickets …. We have a speeding epidemic.”
And Conner noted that the data doesn’t include drivers who zipped along at 5 or 8 miles an hour over the speed limit.
Transportation Department data has shown that in areas where speed cameras are active, speeding is cut by 60%.
The Democrat-run state Assembly passed a bill to renew and expand the speed camera program, and Gov. Cuomo says he backs the Assembly bill.
But the bill has stalled in the Republican-run state Senate — its leaders say the program shouldn’t be expanded. The full Senate has not acted on the issue.
“The only reason our children are not being sufficiently protected is that the state Senate won’t come back and finish the job,” de Blasio.
Among those opposed to the speed cameras are the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the union representing rank-and-file police officers, which argues cameras can’t go after speeding drivers as well as cops.
Conner argued that the sheer number of speeders clocked by the cameras between July 25 and Aug. 10 show it’s not feasible for police to catch them on their own.
“The police officers who are issuing speeding tickets are not able to address the speeding epidemic without the cameras,” he said.