This recipe for safety still needs some crucial ingredients: a big dollop of Albany and a side of unreadable plate enforcement.
New York City's speed cameras are an unqualified success — a new report issued on Thursday reveals that speeding has dropped by 94 percent at locations with the automated enforcement devices — yet the 750-school-zone program will still need to be reauthorized by state legislators before the end of the legislative session in June.
And it's still missing millions of possible speeding incidents because the cameras can't read every plate. (More on that later.)
Concern over reauthorization of the nearly 11-year-old "pilot" program was top of mind for Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, whose prepared statement upon the release of the new report specifically signaled that help is needed in the state capital.
“One in four traffic fatalities involves speeding, and speed cameras are one of the most effective tools we have to change reckless driver behavior and prevent tragedies from happening,” Rodriguez said. “It isn’t a coincidence that locations with speed cameras have seen massive reductions in speeding, fewer deaths, and fewer injuries. We look forward to working with our partners in Albany this session to renew a critical law that allows us to use these life-saving tools.”
Reauthorization is not a given and, indeed, has been a political football and legislative swap meet every time the issue has come up. In July 2018, GOP lawmakers even blocked the reauthorization, pulling the plug on the program, which, at the time, comprised only 140 school zones. Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo created a workaround to reinstate the cameras by executive order before the next school year began. (The pilot program was officially reauthorized by the legislature in 2019.)
And in 2022, Mayor Adams hoped, but failed, to get city control over the system, so that the DOT would not have to beg Albany for reauthorization every few years. After a lengthy back-and-forth, lawmakers in the capital at least reauthorized the program, and expanded it to the current 750 zones and to allow the cameras to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
When Rodriguez and his team go to Albany later this year, they will be able to tout a very successful program. In addition to the topline finding that speeding dropped 94 percent at locations that got a camera, the new report also shows:
- the cameras deter individual speeders, with 74 percent of drivers who received a violation not receiving more than one more in the 12-month period.
- corridors with cameras had a 3-percent decline in injuries and fatalities compared to nearby camera-less corridors, which experienced an 11-percent increase.
- the expansion of speed cameras to 24-7 operation had an immediate safety benefit: there was a 7.6-percent decrease in injuries during the new overnight and weekend hours — which is especially impressive because control locations (i.e. without cameras) experienced a 1.4-percent increase in injuries during this time period.
- some people drive way too fast. More than 97 percent of tickets are issued to people exceeding the speed limit by 11 to 20 miles per hour, but in 2023, more than 161,900 tickets were issued to drivers exceeding the speed limit by more than 21 miles per hour. And 68,881 vehicles were nabbed with 10 or more speed-camera infractions — which only result in a $50 fine and no points on a driver's license – in a single year.
Of course, some of those statistics are undermined by one central shortcoming: fraud continues to be a problem. The agency was unable to issue tickets for more than three million speed camera events due to drivers defacing or covering their license plates, using fake license plates, or having no plates at all. "At the start of the speed camera program, approximately 10 percent of events were rejected," the report stated. "In 2023, 45 percent of events were rejected, of which 65 percent were due to license plate fraud."
"These drivers have made clear that a $50 fine is not a sufficient penalty to change their behavior," the report added dryly.
The report also pre-empts what the agency has come to see as standard attacks from foes in Albany.
To those lawmakers who see the camera system as a "cash grab," the report makes clear that New York's system does not operate like others around the country. For one thing, the enforcement programs is not outsourced to private firms that get a percentage of the ticket revenue, which could create a conflict of interest. Nor does money from the speed-camera program fund specific budget items, as it does in some other places, where officials "may seek to keep violation levels high, so they can fund their programs, rather than to reduce speeding and associated violations," the report said.
To lawmakers who believe that the cameras are unfairly distributed by location or by the predominant race of area residents, the report explains that most tickets are being issued in "communities with the highest levels of car ownership," which on average are wealthier than the city average.
And a chart shows that "there is no correlation between the percentage of residents of color in a given neighborhood and the number of speed cameras in that area."
And to lawmakers who don't trust automated enforcement, the report reminds that all people who received a notice that they were caught on camera can contest the ticket in court. But 98 percent of ticket recipients don't, an indication that people know when they've been caught.
But reauthorizing the program is just one part of the safety equation. The city is also calling for Albany to provide "solutions to address" drivers who repeatedly speed, challenging recalcitrant lawmakers to do more about the most reckless drivers.
"Vehicles that had acquired at least 25 speed camera violations over the course of one year were 15 times more likely to be in a crash that resulted in death or
severe injury than the ordinary driver," the report stated. "In 2023, that was about 7,500 vehicles."
The city itself had a program to at least provide safety courses for such drivers, but the City Council, under Adrienne Adams, allowed it to expire and has done nothing to revive it.
It's likely that state Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Bay Ridge) will carry the reauthorization bill, as he did in 2022.
“The numbers don’t lie: my bill to expand the speed camera program has saved lives,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to working further with my colleagues in Albany, Mayor Adams, and Commissioner Rodriguez to continue this momentum and make our streets safer.”
Gounardes has already reintroduced his bill to increase penalties for repeat speed camera violators, but its fate is unclear. It was previously stripped from his reauthorization bill in a compromise with foes.
