Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Andrew Cuomo

Cuomo Can Save Lives by Unshackling NYC’s Speed Camera Program

Children went to Albany last spring to try to convince state legislators to allow more NYC speed cameras. It’s time for Governor Cuomo to step up. Photo: Brad Aaron

Mayor de Blasio says city officials will again ask Albany to let NYC expand its speed camera program. In addition to lifting the cap on cameras, Cuomo and state lawmakers should end arbitrary restrictions on location and hours of operation, which make the cameras less effective than they could be.

NYC is currently limited to operating 140 speed enforcement cameras. The cameras must be sited near schools and can be activated only during school hours. Even so, cameras caught 10 times as many speeding drivers as NYPD did last year -- issuing 1.37 million citations compared to 137,000 written by police -- according to testimony presented to the City Council yesterday.

But state mandates that narrow the scope of the program leave New Yorkers exposed on some of the city's most dangerous streets.

The Village Voice reports that, according to DOT, 85 percent of traffic deaths and serious injuries occur at times and locations that Albany has decreed off-limits to automated speed enforcement. “Unfortunately a lot of crashes do not happen near schools or during school hours,” Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg told council members Thursday.

Lobbying state lawmakers to allow more cameras has become an annual tradition for NYC officials and victims of traffic violence. Last spring, members of Families for Safe Streets accompanied dozens of children who traveled to the capitol to make the case for speed cameras outside every school in the city.

Andrew Cuomo, Independent Democratic Conference leader Jeff Klein, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie
Andrew Cuomo, Independent Democratic Conference leader Jeff Klein, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie
Andrew Cuomo, Independent Democratic Conference leader Jeff Klein, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie

Manhattan Assembly Member Deborah Glick, who sponsored last year's bill, eventually reduced the ask to just 60 additional cameras, with looser restrictions on placement. But Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, of the Bronx, insisted that the bill had to be accompanied by a City Council home rule message, which wasn't true. On the Senate side, support from power broker Jeff Klein, who has backed speed camera legislation in the past, never materialized.

This year, Transportation Alternatives will train its efforts on Governor Cuomo. “We’re really asking the governor to take action,” TA Executive Director Paul White told the Voice.

A recent TA-funded survey of NYC voters found that 84 percent of respondents, most of whom own cars, support putting speed cameras near more schools.

“The legislature is so dysfunctional now," said White, "really the surest route to victory, the surest route to saving kids’ lives, is if the governor takes this on.”

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Staten Islanders Fight To Keep Park Car-free

Politicians believe cars will make the park safer, but the opposite is the case.

April 18, 2025

Friday Headlines: Trump’s Revenge Tour Now Includes a Stop at Penn Station

U.S. DOT Secretary Sean Duffy is so eager to own the libs at the MTA that he's now taken himself hostage. Plus other news.

April 18, 2025

Exclusive: Cops Writing 15% of Their Red Light Tix to Cyclists, Who are Just 2% of Road Users

We received data from a Freedom of Information Law request showing that the NYPD is intent on writing red-light tickets to the lightest, slowest-moving vehicles instead of doubling-down on enforcement against 3,000-pound-plus killing machines.

April 18, 2025

OPINION: DOT’s Argument Against Universal Daylighting Has a Fatal Flaw

Hydrant zones and bus stops are not a suitable stand-in for universal daylighting — yet DOT is using them to argue against safety, our contributors write.

April 18, 2025

Helicopter Deaths, Fast and Slow

Choppers harm us. Suddenly but also steadily.

April 17, 2025
See all posts