Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
State Legislature

Behind Closed Doors, State Senators Sentence New Yorkers to Death by Speeding

Senate lawmakers sided with speeding drivers over parents whose children died in traffic. Photo: @carolinesampo

State senators failed to a vote on a bill that would have expanded New York City's speed camera program, effectively guaranteeing more New Yorkers will be injured and killed by speeding motorists.

The Assembly passed legislation to roughly double the number of NYC school zones where speed cameras are allowed by Albany, and there was hope the Senate would follow suit during the special session convened by Governor Cuomo.

Members of Families for Safe Streets made another trip to Albany -- their seventh of the session, according to a statement from Transportation Alternatives Deputy Director Caroline Samponaro -- to implore senators to pass the bill, which would also have extended the program until 2022.

But as they did during the regular session, state senators declined to call a vote. According to TransAlt, a vote was thwarted by a handful of senators, who spiked the bill in private.

From Samponaro's statement, which you'll want to read in its entirety:

Today, the New York State Senate failed to vote on a bill to increase the number of speed safety cameras permitted to operate in New York City, and summarily shut down a collective plea for safety and protection from thousands of parents, school children, and senior citizens; from a coalition of hundreds of schools, churches, mosques, and synagogues; and from the New York City Police Department, the New York City Council, and Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Amid reports that a small number of senators derailed the passage of this simple safety bill, Transportation Alternatives calls upon these members of the Senate to come out from behind closed doors and explain their obstruction of this vote. Without the deterrence that this expanded camera program would have provided, thousands of New Yorkers will be seriously injured and scores killed in the coming year. This will be blood on these senators’ hands.

Streetsblog will have more on this story later.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Monday’s Headlines: Violation Calculation Edition

Let's talk a little about NYPD enforcement of moving violations, plus other news (yet, understandably, not a word about our Mets).

October 7, 2024

Talking Headways Podcast: Transit Themed Rock Music

Meet a band that writes exclusively about the car-free life on public transit. And it rocks!

October 7, 2024

The Insider: How to Blow the Whistle on a Federal Transportation Agency

Quon Kwan's research could have lead to regulations that says saved hundreds of pedestrians and cyclists in large truck crashes. Instead, the analysis was quashed.

October 7, 2024

SPECIAL REPORT: Fake Chaplains, Faithless Scam

"Park like an animal, but kosher," reads a recent ad for chaplaincy training and placards for "graduates." But it's all fake.

X-Citement: Union Boss and Streetsblog Columnist Fight Congestion Pricing War in Public

Get some popcorn and watch Charles Komanoff and union boss John Samuelsen battle on Twitter.

October 4, 2024
See all posts