Traffic Enforcement

Last month we noted that Ray Kelly's NYPD made a highly visible show of bike enforcement in Prospect Park in response to a pair of crashes where cyclists injured pedestrians. Normally, police don't react so decisively to locations with high crash rates, but in Prospect Park, the 78th quickly handed out more tickets to cyclists at one spot than they do to speeding motorists in the whole precinct in an average month.

Walk out on any New York City street and you're likely to find rampant disregard for traffic laws. Pinpointing exactly who's speeding requires special equipment, but for many offenses, you can track the level of lawlessness with the naked eye.

The Manhattan Borough Board passed a resolution last Thursday endorsing the use of automated cameras to catch speeding drivers. Earning the support of 10 Manhattan community boards and four City Council members -- with no votes in opposition -- the resolution was a strong show of support for better traffic enforcement on New York City streets.

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the adoption of Hayley and Diego's Law, which established the charge of "careless driving" in New York State and gave police and prosecutors a new tool to hold motorists who injure pedestrians and cyclists accountable. Unfortunately, says Transportation Alternatives, over the past 12 months the law has gone largely unenforced by NYPD.

Had to share this message from Daily News reader Ken Douglas in response to the opinion piece I wrote with Dr. Linda Prine about the health and safety benefits of complete streets. Our essay focused on the engineering side of the street safety equation -- street designs like bike lanes and curb extensions that are under NYC DOT's control. Ken wrote in to point out that better enforcement and education will also prevent pedestrians from getting killed and seriously injured.

We'll overlook the number of contortions performed by the Daily News to make today's report on the success of red light cameras look like a "he said she said" story. It's simply not a surprise when the city press corps assigns comparable weight to the wishes of motorists to break the law with impunity and the right of pedestrians and cyclists -- and, in this case, other drivers -- to reach their destinations in one piece.

Top NYPD brass expressed surprise at West Side residents' unhappiness with the department's traffic enforcement policies and vowed to do better at a meeting of Manhattan CB 4's transportation committee last night. They also announced a new citywide "pedestrians first" policy for the department.

Mayor Bloomberg's budget proposal, which was released today, still includes a plan to increase parking meter rates across the city, a plan which the City Council scuttled once in January. The transportation budget also includes an increase in revenue from an expansion of the city's red light camera program.

Legislation allowing the city to curb deadly driving through the use of speed enforcement cameras will soon resurface in Albany.