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Articles Tagged with speed camera

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speed cameras to reduce crashes in NYCIn an effort to reduce car accident fatalities and serious injuries in New York City,  more than 2000 speed cameras located in 750 school zones throughout the 5 boroughs of New York City will be turned on 24/7 365 days a year, starting August 1st, 2022.

Speed cameras that used to be turned on weekdays from 6:00 am to 10:00 am have proven to be one of the most effective ways to reduce speeding in the city. Statistics from the NYC DOT show that speeding was reduced by more than 70% at locations where speed cameras were installed.

With many dangerous crashes caused by speeding occurring at night time and during week-ends, the DOT strongly believes that the new speed camera schedule will help curb these type of crashes.

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Andrew_Gounardes wrote the speed camera billsIn an effort to reduce an increase in fatal car accidents in New York City, legislators in Albany have signed a deal to renew the existing cameras program and to have them running 24/7 instead of the current schedule of 6:00 am to 10:00 pm.

Safety advocates were pleased that the deal was signed and the new amended bill was on its way to be delivered to Governor Hochul and signed.  The signature of the bill allows the speed cameras program to be extended for 3 years. However the deal is a watered down version of the bill proposed by Senator Andrew Gournades (picture) who originally included several other propositions such as:

  • Requiring the DMV to notify car insurance companies about any car accumulating five or more speed camera tickets
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Speed cameras prevent crashes59% of all deadly crashes in New York City occur during hours when speed cameras are turned off and speeding is the number one factor of car accident fatalities in New York City with 4 out of 5 fatal crashes caused by speed according to a new report recently published by Transportation Alternatives.

Speed cameras in New York City have proven to be among the most effective tools to address speeding and reduce car accidents.  The speed camera program that was implemented in 2014 in New York City is not regulated by  New York City but by New York State in Albany.  Albany not only limits the number of speed cameras but also their location (only in school zones and at few intersections) and their hours of operation (Monday to Friday from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm).   Mayor Adams wants the city to have control over the speed camera program and two days ago, the NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner, Ydanis Rodriguez reiterated Adams’ call on lawmakers in Albany to hand over control of the city’s speed camera program (see article in the Gothamist).

Both the NYC DOT and street safety activists are asking for speed camera to be active 24/7.  Previous studies effectuated by the DOT show that as soon as the cameras are turned off, speeding comes back and that 31% of all crash fatalities take place in a school zone area at a time when cameras are turned off.

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Auto Accident NYC Injuries Deaths June 2020During the Covid-19 lock-down, NYC car accident deaths and motorcyclist deaths related to reckless behavior, mostly speeding, increased. City officials were expecting fatalities to go down as the city was getting more active again but statistics show that instead traffic accident fatalities surged after the lock-down.

As a result the DOT announced yesterday that it was lowering the city speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph on the most dangerous roads of the 5 New York City boroughs on:

  • Riverside  Drive from 165th street to 181st street in Manhattan
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speeding problems in NYCA 21 year old man was killed in a car crash in New York City after a 20 year old unlicensed driver blew a stop sign and struck him. 20 year old Satesh Permaul was driving his car on 107th Avenue in Ozone Park, Queens, when 21 year old Christopher Garcia sped through a stop sign at 109th Street and crashed into his car. The young men were both from the neighborhood and knew each other from school. Garcia didn’t have a drivers license. Shortly before the accident occurred he called his girlfriend to tell her he was looking for a parking space according to the Daily News. The girlfriend also told the News that Garcia was teaching her how to drive and explained to her how to wait 3 seconds at a stop sign before slowly crossing. Surveillance video show Garcia completely ignoring the stop sign and crashing into Permaul’s car at full speed. Permaul was transported to the hospital but he didn’t survive his injuries. The police took Garcia into custody and charged him with aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. (Read more in the NY Daily News )

Speeding is spiking in the City

With less traffic in the streets because of the pandemic, speeding has been spiking all over the city. In New York City, on March 27,  24,765 speed camera tickets were issued compared to 12,672 tickets daily a month earlier.  On Twitter NYC Councilman Justin Brannan said “Yep. Now that the streets are empty, the Fast & Furious wannabes really think they’re living in a video game. The sounds of cars and motorcycles racing on the Belt Parkway in #BayRidge have become a scary lullaby.”

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nyc-car-crash-tweetA few days ago a cyclist tweeted a disturbing picture of a car crash on the Williamsburg bridge.  We don’t know if anybody was hurt in the accident but it definitely looked like the driver lost control of the vehicle because he was driving too fast.
Jacob Robert is among many New Yorkers who have been complaining on social media that they witnessed cars speeding on empty roads, considering them like freeways.

Speed cameras recorded the same number of  tickets than in January despite the decline in traffic

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New-York-School-Zone-Speed-CameraIn New York, speed cameras have proven to be one of the most efficient ways to prevent car accidents and save pedestrian lives especially children and seniors. After Governor Cuomo signed a new law allowing the expansion of the school zone speed camera program in New York City (see previous blog), mayor de Blasio recently announced that the number of speed cameras in New York City would gradually increase from 140 now to 750 in 2020.

The number of hours during which the speed cameras will be operating is expected to almost double

Additionally and starting July 11 speed cameras will operate weekdays from 6 AM to 10 PM. They will not only operate during school hours as it was the case before. The new law also expands the distance at which cameras can be installed from the school. As a result additional speed cameras will be installed in dangerous locations such as West End Ave, First Avenue in Manhattan, Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island, Northern Boulevard in Queens and Grand Concourse in the Bronx.
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Speed camera prevent injuries and deathsA speed camera program that was installed in 2014  in New York City school zones to reduce pedestrian accidents was shut down. Cameras were turned off yesterday in 120 school zones around the city and by the end of August 20 other school zones will see their speed cameras turned off as well.

Despite heavy campaigning by New York City mayor Bill de Blasio and NY Governor Andrew Cuomo not only to keep the school camera program alive but also to add additional cameras in the city, lawmakers in Albany failed to call a vote to renew the program.

Since they have been installed in 2014, the speed cameras have clearly demonstrated that they protect pedestrians and especially children from being injured or dying in car accidents in New York City school zones. Statistics indicate that in school areas where cameras were installed speeding decreased by 63% and fatalities by 55% between 2014 and 2016.

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every schoolThe installation of 140 speed cameras in NYC proved to be a successful way to reduce speeding in school zones and protect residents from fatal car accidents. Today State Sen. Jose Peralta and Assemblyman Michael DenDekker will propose to extend the installation of similar cameras to 2,000 school zones in New York City. The two democratic politicians from Queens are also proposing to have these cameras running 24 hours instead of only during school time as is the case now. Peralta and DenDekker also suggest that if a driver gets caught five times or more he or she should have his vehicle registration suspended.

The new bills introduced today by the two legislators are coming on the steps of a new Transportatrion Alternative campaign that requires the installation of speed camerat at #EverySchool

Read more in the NY Daily News

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To prevent car accidents in school areas in New York City, the Department of Transportation completed the installation of 140 speed cameras at the beginning of this month, just on time for the beginning of the school year. The installation of the speed cameras which is part of the Vision Zero initiative to reduce personal injury and death related to traffic accidents in New York City, started 20 months ago. Since then, 945,000 speed camera violations have already been issued. At the beginning of the implementation of the project, there was an average of 192 violations issued per camera per day. Last August this number was down to 69 which demonstrates the efficacy of the cameras in deterring speeding.

100 cameras have been installed at a fixed location and 40 of them are mobile.  Cameras were installed at schools that had a history of  pedestrians, bicyclists and motorist crashes during school hours. School areas located near spots with speeding issues or close to dangerous intersections or corridors could also qualify to be equipped with speed cameras.

In addition to the cameras, the DOT installed 4,000 speed limit signs including “Photo Enforced” language.