Traffic Enforcement

Walk against the light or cross midblock in Bay Ridge, and the 68th Precinct might hand you a flyer modeled after an official warning notice.

There's one less reckless driver on the streets of New York today thanks to NYPD, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, and Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jill Konviser.

At the first of what is sure to be many forums on Mayor Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero agenda, nearly 100 residents, advocates, city officials and elected representatives gathered in Manhattan last night to talk about what implementing the Vision Zero Action Plan will look like, including immediate actions from the city and longer-term efforts at the state level.

You've got to hand it to City Council Member Vincent Ignizio: If nothing else, the man is consistent.

NYPD got a lot of press last month for ticketing pedestrians, but officers were also summonsing more motorists for deadly driving behaviors.

A marathon City Council hearing elicited some new details about Mayor Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero agenda and brought out the raw emotion of New Yorkers mourning loved ones killed on city streets.

Taking up one of the contrarian slots in today's "Room for Debate" segment about Vision Zero and pedestrian safety in NYC, Jennifer Lynch of The Electronic Frontier Foundation staked out the civil libertarian position against automated traffic enforcement. EFF does great legal and policy work in general, but Lynch is way off base here. At this point, there's a mountain of evidence that traffic cameras save lives, and it's highly irresponsible to suggest, as Lynch does, that we need more data before taking action.

While some precincts are ramping up failure-to-yield stings and disavowing jaywalking tickets, not every NYPD outpost has moved beyond the shoot-fish-in-a-barrel approach to traffic enforcement.

Community Board 7 in Brooklyn continues to emerge as a force for safer neighborhood streets.