What a weird Public Safety Committee hearing the Council held on Monday! Though several bills were on the agenda, NYPD top brass were grilled and thrown back on their heels by Council members' frustration of ongoing reports of racially biased policing of car stops.
Our own Sophia Lebowitz covered it.
Left undiscussed was the topic that had the most buzz, at least pre-hearing: A Council resolution that would urge state lawmakers to pass a bill requiring in-car tech to slow down the most reckless drivers. Transportation Alternatives held a big rally beforehand, and members of Families for Safe Streets testified during the public session, but Council members didn't really talk much about the home rule bill.
But we did learn something cool: The NYPD is now fairly open about spinning its deep drop in traffic summonses as a positive thing.
First, the facts: As we and others have pointed out, NYPD cops are writing nowhere near as many tickets for moving violations as they did pre-pandemic. We made a nice chart, even:
But there are, apparently, other ways to look at it. According to NYPD Director of Legislative Affairs Joshua Levin (who spent most of the hearing speaking for NYPD Transportation Bureau Chief Olufunmilola Obe in a bit of horrific optics), the NYPD is actually doing a better job of "targeting" its enforcement by putting cops where they're needed.
OK, we're open to that; if speed cameras tell us anything, they tell us where the worst drivers are — and, by extension, where the NYPD should put cops.
We reached out to the agency and got some interesting numbers: On key Vision Zero corridors, the NYPD's enforcement effort is actually soaring. And we made a chart of that, too:
Of course, there are a lot of dangerous corridors that haven't been named "Vision Zero corridors," so we'll be looking into this strategy as it plays out. The writing of moving violations may be up 277 percent on Ocean Parkway, but that's also where a reckless driver with a suspended license killed three members of a Brooklyn family last month.
And through April 22 this year, 13,242 people have already been injured in crashes (about 118 per day) and 56 people have been killed. The good news (if there is any) is that those numbers are down fairly dramatically from last year.
Congestion pricing gets some of the credit for that, as we've reported, but no one was saying it yesterday. They should have.
In other news:
- Habemus budget! (NY Post, Gothamist)
- As we reported, subway ridership is up. But the Post found a way to spin that as not true.
- Our award-nominated social-media editor, Emily Lipstein, has done it again with this video about Mayor Adams's failure to finish the Ashland Place bike lane, aka "Crashland":
- Wait, when TMZ is weighing in (positively) on the speed governor bill, you know the tide is turning!
- Wait, when Henry Grabar tells you you fucked up outdoor dining, you really fucked up outdoor dining. (Slate)
- Albany pols move ahead to preemptively prevent Penn Station from being renamed for President Trump. (NY Post)
- The new turnstiles are here! The new turnstiles are here! (NYDN, amNY)
- The MTA is still catching drivers with covered or obstructed plates. (PIX 11)
- You had me at "Road rage grandpa on Long Island." (NY Post)
- What could possibly go wrong with AI helping the MTA police the subways? (Gothamist)
- Hey, next time you see a person struck by a car driver, this Williamsburg 365 reader says, "Stop gawking." And you know what we might add: start advocating!
- That advice came, naturally, after yet another youngster was run over and hurt by a driver. (WMSBG)
- And, finally, here's a headline that really didn't age well a few hours later. (amNY)
