Speed camera pilot program to roll out September 9

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Department of Transportation Commissioner Jeanette Sadik-Khan have announced that the speed camera pilot program would roll out at yet-to-be-determined locations near schools citywide beginning the first day of school, Monday, September 9.

The law allows the city to install speed cameras at 20 locations within a quarter mile of schools in high crash locations and it allows the city to rotate the cameras to school locations across the five boroughs. The cameras would work much like the red-light cameras already in place; they would not photograph the driver or share the license plate number of the car.

Default penalties for speeding would be set at $25 with a maximum penalty of $50 for speeding between 10 and 30 miles above the speed limit and $100 for speeding over 30 miles above the speed limit.

The mayor and commissioner were joined by NYPD Chief of Transportation James Tuller on Monday, August 26 at W.E.B. Dubois High School in Crown Heights,  one of the candidates to receive speed camera technology nearby due to a high crash rate in its vicinity.

“Keeping streets safe for motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians is one of the most important public safety challenges any government faces,” said Bloomberg. “Our streets are the safest they have ever been, due in large part to our enforcement efforts and innovative traffic engineering that have brought traffic fatalities to record lows. Curbing speeding around schools will help us continue to make our city’s streets safer for everyone.”

“Over the last six years, we’ve kept an unrelenting focus on the safety of our most vulnerable New Yorkers, and with speed cameras we’re now putting an even sharper focus on safety near our schools,” Sadik-Khan added. “Motorists who play fast and loose on our streets need to learn the critical lesson that the New York City’s speed limit is 30 mph for a reason, and that it’s literally the difference between life and death.”

Transportation Alternatives has been working with the DOT and community groups to identify the best locations for the cameras. Since August 14, 72 requests have been made for 220 locations.

“New Yorkers want to save lives and they know speed cameras will do just that,” said Paul Steely White, TA’s executive director. “Just in time for the school year, several dozen school zones will be safer. We look forward to the day when every school has the same protection against reckless drivers.”

Closer to home, residents of Bay Ridge will likely fight for speed cameras along Fourth Avenue, which has been the scene of one fatal and several critical accidents involving pedestrians since the beginning of 2013.

Stefania Vasquenz, co-founder of Bay Ridge Advocates for Keeping Everyone Safe, said that she hopes to see a speed camera in the vicinity of 86^th Street and Ridge Boulevard, which has several schools nearby including P.S. 186, DGK Parochial School, Adelphi Academy and Bay Ridge Prep.

“It’s a great idea. [Schools are the] perfect place to start putting in speed cameras, especially since I walk the kids back and forth to school along 86^th Street,” she contended. “So many people don’t think that they are near schools [as they drive]. It doesn’t faze anyone.”