CB10 votes on speed camera location recommendations

Members of Community Board 10 voted to recommend eight locations for speed cameras at its general meeting on Monday, September 16 held at the Shore Hill Community Room.

At the Traffic and Transportation Committee meeting held last week, members came up with six locations: Ridge Boulevard between 85th and 86th Street, Fourth Avenue between 81st and 82nd Street, 65th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues, Fourth Avenue between Ovington Avenue and 72nd Street, Fourth Avenue between 92nd and 89th Streets, and Fort Hamilton Parkway between Bay Ridge Parkway and 73rd Street.

The recommendations come on the heels of new legislation that allows for 20 speed cameras to be installed near schools across the city. That means that each borough will get four cameras, whose locations will rotate. The pilot program kicked off this week and the Department of Transportation is accepting recommendations from residents.

DOT officials will look over the recommendations and determine the best locations for the cameras, based on speeding and crash data.

“We want DOT to know that these are the locations that we find with the highest amount of speeding,” said Traffic and Transportation Committee Chair Doris Cruz. “The cameras have a ripple or halo effect so all of Fourth Avenue would benefit. [For example], if we put one on 82nd Street, it affects [traffic flow] all the way up to 65th Street.”

Board member Rhea McCone suggested that a camera was needed near Fort Hamilton High School on Colonial Road, between 82nd and 83rd Street.

“They speed, speed, speed,” she contended. “They put a new light [on the corner of Colonial Road and 83rd Street] and they speed to make it. I have had people pass me on Colonial Road. You wouldn’t believe it.”

Tony Wu, who is principal of P.S. 170, made another recommendation for a camera on Seventh Avenue between Ovington Avenue and 72nd Street, contending that speeding is prevalent near his school, as well.

The locations will be submitted to the DOT by District Manager Josephine Beckmann.

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