Eyes on the Street: Reason Number 6,734,090,855 NYC Needs Speed Cams

Turn up the volume and listen for the sociopathic pacesetter about halfway through this clip. This is southbound Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights, recorded with my bike-mounted camera at the intersection with Dean Street at about 9:40 p.m. last night.

Vanderbilt has become much more walkable and bikeable since DOT implemented a road diet about five years ago, converting a motor vehicle lane into pedestrian medians and painted bike lanes. By and large, car traffic is calmer. But there are still some maniacs who don’t get the engineering cues, and if they have enough space in front of them to open up the throttle, they’ll treat this crowded city street like a racetrack.

This is behavior that kills, but police aren’t ticketing the drivers who do it. That’s why NYC needs automated enforcement.

A proposal that would allow the city to set up speed enforcement cameras for the first time is alive in Albany, and we’ll have an update about it later this afternoon.