Kavanagh and Squadron Kick Off Bus Lane Camera Enforcement

Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assm. Brian Kavanagh announce that bus lane cameras, which they helped shepherd through Albany, will be enforcing First and Second Avenue starting today. Photo: Office of Dan Squadron.
Dan Squadron and Brian Kavanagh announce that bus lane cameras will be enforcing First and Second Avenue starting today. Photo: Office of Dan Squadron

Camera enforcement of the First and Second Avenue bus lanes began today. To mark the occasion, State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh held a press conference gathering together community leaders and taxi drivers to get the message out to drivers: Block the lane and face the fine. As Squadron and Kavanagh explained, however, drivers may enter the bus lanes to turn right or to quickly drop off or pick up passengers.

Hopefully, starting up camera enforcement will keep the bus lanes clear and allow the East Side’s Select Bus Service to run even more smoothly. Even before the cameras were turned on, the introduction of Select Bus Service had cut trip times by between 12 and 16 minutes compared to the old limited service. That’s an improvement of between 14 and 19 percent.

Said Kavanagh in a press release:

“Almost a year ago, we called on the City and the MTA to implement a true Bus Rapid Transit system along First and Second Avenues.  We’re not quite there yet, but new enforcement mechanisms like bus cameras and clarification of the rules for taxi drivers and other car users should help get us one step closer to the full transit potential of our streetscape.”

  • PaulC

    I just hope the biggest abusers of this, the taxi drives, get tickets for driving in the bus only lane when its enforced.

  • Randy

    just saw a advertisement which said something like. “we need to clean this street up” and “someone in the city should do something” and my favorite “the city is doing nothing” Improvement begins with “I” what happened to “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” In rural areas we have mile after mile of adopt a street to clean it saves lots of tax dollars and makes the country side pretty for tourists.

  • thenewsjunkie

    Pretty typical for the NY Times these days. They no longer take the time to find out facts in a story and just go with the emotional stuff not based on informed opinion. The cut backs have really hurt that paper big time. Everyday, I find myself asking why they bothered writing half a dozen stories in the daily edition. They did the same thing with the bullshit story on the proposed 7 line extension to NJ. They spent all their time talking to commuters on the number 7 line and people in NJ but didn’t seem to talk to one person at the MTA. How do you do a story on the number 7 line and not interview anyone at the agency that would actually be responsible for designing and building the project.

  • Doug

    The New York Times: reporting by anecdote. I’m convinced that their articles are almost completely sourced reporters calling their friends and interviewing them.

  • millenniumcab

    Taxi drivers have a job to do. Picking up and dropping people off is part of that job. By law, they are allowed to expeditiously drop off and pick people up in bus only lanes. But they get tickets from cameras all the time doing their job. One of those tickets equals to taxi drivers’ daily income. I bet you’re happy to hear that.

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