Traffic Enforcement

There’s a tussle going on right now about how cyclists should ride on city streets. Yesterday's Streetsblog Network post took a snapshot of this debate yesterday, excerpting the WashCycle’s response to a Sarah Goodyear piece in Atlantic Cities.

Yesterday at about 3:30 p.m., a taxi driver struck a cyclist on Seventh Avenue in Chelsea between 16th and 17th Street. Police made two arrests at the scene, though at this time NYPD is not revealing what they were charged with.

Update: The Home Reporter reports that the elderly victim of this crash has died.

Although maintaining that cameras "are never going to be a replacement for officers," a prominent police union official told Streetsblog that he strongly supports automated enforcement. "People drive in this town with impunity," he said. "I'll take any help we can get at this point to try and reign in some of the problems."

If you walk on New York City streets (or frankly anywhere in the U.S.), you're well aware of how much unlawful and dangerous driving happens on nearly every block: red light running, speeding, double-parking, you name it.

The Post revealed earlier this week that NYPD trains only one officer per precinct to use a radar gun, which partially explains why speeding enforcement is close to non-existent in most neighborhoods. But while NYPD thinly spreads local precincts' speeding enforcement resources over thousands of miles of surface streets where pedestrians and cyclists are at risk of getting struck by drivers, the department does have a number of officers trained to apprehend speeders. The problem is that they're positioned on the city's limited access highways.

City Council Member Jumaane Williams has issued a statement calling for speed cameras and other traffic-calming measures following the death of Denim McLean, the 2-year-old killed by a curb-jumping driver in East Flatbush.

Early Saturday afternoon, about 25 people gathered at the corner of St. Annes Avenue and East 138th Street in the South Bronx, protesting heavy truck traffic and deadly driving in the Mott Haven neighborhood.

A protest outside State Senator Marty Golden's district office this afternoon, organized by Bay Ridge Advocates for Keeping Everyone Safe (BRAKES), blasted the Bay Ridge Republican for his continued opposition to speed cameras, which kept a demonstration program out of this year's state budget.