A Round and a Roundy: Sleepy de Blasio’s ’15 Strikes and You’re Out’ Rule

Our editorial cartoonist isn’t buying it. The City Council’s “Reckless Driver Accountability Act” originally hoped to demand accountability from — and enhance enforcement against — drivers who had been slapped with five or more camera-issued speeding or red light tickets in a single year.

But when the Brad Lander-penned bill finally passed last week after months of negotiation with the de Blasio administration, the threshold had risen to five red light tickets or 15 camera-issued speeding tickets! Supporters of the bill say the lower threshold would have lassoed too many drivers, making the program impossible to implement. But cartoonist Bill Roundy has his hot take: Sleepy de Blasio could have added capacity by hiring more ticket analysts, building more tow pound space, and putting some more money into driver-training courses, but that would be just so much … work.

So, instead, Lander’s still-laudable bill will let drivers with four red light tickets and 14 speeding tickets off the hook. True, the scaled-down bill will make it easier for city officials to implement and then expand once they can show it’s working, but Roundy believes in going big.

Bill Roundy’s cartoons are archived here.