Traffic Enforcement

It's easier to blame pedestrian deaths on victims than to confront our responsibility to create a safer transportation system.

A new Transportation Alternatives report finds that speeding is common outside schools where cameras aren't in use.

NYPD has increased tickets for speeding and texting while driving 50 percent so far in 2017 compared to the same period last year, Commissioner James O’Neill testified at a City Council budget hearing last week. Speeding and distracted driving are two of the most common factors in fatal and injurious crashes in NYC, so it stands to reason that this shift in enforcement is reducing the incidence of dangerous driving. But there's no way to actually tell if those summonses are changing driver behavior.

Members of Families for Safe Streets are in Albany today to talk to state legislators about expanding NYC's automated speed enforcement program. After legislative leaders failed to advance a similar bill last year, this session it appears to have more traction.

Last week at Transportation Alternatives' Vision Zero Cities conference, LA County Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Tamika Butler delivered a strong message to attendees from around the country: Vision Zero does not exist in a bubble, separate from America's history and ongoing repression of people of color.

Speaking at the Vision Zero Cities conference, public safety committee chair Vanessa Gibson said the Right of Way Law "has to" be enforced.

Police brutality and racial inequities in criminal justice must be addressed by advocates and agencies aiming to reduce traffic fatalities. That's the key takeaway from a Vision Zero Cities panel yesterday on police violence and traffic enforcement. "Vision Zero cannot be a reason to overly-police black and brown bodies," said Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Tamika Butler. "You can’t ignore the country we live in."

NYPD and DOT testified in support of two City Council bills intended to help police catch hit-and-run drivers. However, Transportation Alternatives said the bills don’t cover enough types of crashes.

A motorist killed a senior at the same intersection in 2016. The 19th Precinct, meanwhile, has made a show of seizing electric bikes delivery workers need to earn a living.