NYPD Is Ticketing More Drivers for Speeding on Neighborhood Streets

NYPD is issuing more speeding summonses this year than in 2013, and data show a substantial jump in the number of drivers ticketed for speeding on neighborhood streets. While the numbers represent an increase from the baseline, it will take a lot more summonses for enforcement to be commensurate with the scale of NYC's reckless driving problem.

As of the end of May, NYPD had issued 46,119 speeding citations, according to the department's monthly violations report. Of those, 29,125 were issued by the transportation bureau, which for the most part concentrates enforcement on city highways, with the patrol bureau -- precinct officers -- issuing 16,993 speeding summonses (one ticket was unaccounted for). Through May 2013, police had issued 35,713 speeding tickets: 25,434 by the transportation bureau and 10,279 by precincts. That's a 29 percent year-to-year increase across the board, and a 65 percent rise in precinct speed enforcement.

In addition, NYPD continued to issue more summonses for failure to yield to pedestrians relative to last year: 14,779 total as of May, compared to 5,836 through May 2013 -- a 153 percent jump.

It's possible that the ticketing surge can be attributed more to recent ticket "blitzes," like the one NYPD launched Monday, than to sustained day to day enforcement. And as we've reported before, counting summonses doesn't help determine how many motorists are following traffic laws. Surveys by Transportation Alternatives have recorded a large share of drivers exceeding the speed limit on streets throughout the city, so even the increased number of tickets only captures a very small portion of total speeding.

Still, it's clear that through the first five months of Mayor de Blasio's Vision Zero initiative, NYPD speeding enforcement is moving in the right direction.