Traffic Enforcement

Here's how unconcerned the New York Police Department is with deadly traffic violations: For at least a month, and possibly longer, reports DNAinfo, Brooklyn's 76th Precinct went without a radar gun.

The City Council has concluded it cannot require NYPD to fully investigate traffic crashes, despite indications that current department protocols may violate state law.

In the first few seconds of this video, when you see the cop in the unmarked NYPD cruiser hit the siren and edge through a Manhattan intersection, stopping traffic before he steps on the gas, you may wonder: Is there a bank robbery in progress? A call of shots fired?

An informal survey conducted by the Daily News suggests that many trucking companies and truck drivers are ignoring the state's four-month-old crossover mirror law, and that police are not enforcing the safety measure.

Yesterday, Chicago's Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance that would allow speeding enforcement cameras to blanket up to half the city. Here in New York, Deborah Glick's bill to allow up to a mere 40 speed cameras remains stuck in Albany limbo, with 24 co-sponsors in the Assembly but none in the State Senate. Can Chicago show New York City what it takes to prevent injuries and deaths by hold speeding motorists accountable?

A study released today finds that two out of three motorists speed on Brooklyn's McGuinness Boulevard [PDF], a notorious Greenpoint thoroughfare where locals have for years called on the city to take action to prevent pedestrian and cyclist injuries and deaths.

Last week Brooklyn City Council Member Steve Levin went out to Atlantic Avenue and clocked 88 percent of drivers breaking the speed limit. Atlantic is one of the deadliest streets in Brooklyn, recently tying for the borough's top spot in the annual Tri-State Transportation Campaign ranking of the region's most dangerous roads. And yet, as Peter Kaufman pointed out on Ink Lake yesterday, the 84th Precinct, which includes the western segment of Atlantic, issued zero speeding tickets in January.

When the City Council passed Jessica Lappin's Saving Lives Through Better Information bill last year, traffic safety and open government advocates cheered. Under the law, the NYPD is required to provide monthly data on both traffic crashes and traffic summonsing, shedding light on the hazards of city streets and what steps police take to protect New Yorkers from dangerous drivers.

Is it worse to ride an electric bike than to kill someone with a car? If a bill by City Council Member Jessica Lappin becomes law, it will be.