There’s no better prevention to speeding than a steep summons and the shame of a police officer’s attention, but some representatives in the New York State Assembly are backing a workaround that comes close. Elected officials like Lower Manhattan Assembly Member Deborah Glick and Staten Island Assembly Members Matthew Titone and Louis Tobacco, Richard Gottfried and Linda Rosenthal are standing up for the Neighborhood Speeds for Neighborhood Streets Act to bring speed enforcement cameras to New York City streets.
New York City’s 150 red light enforcement cameras prove that cameras can be more efficient than the NYPD. If we can get the Assembly to act, T.A. expects speed enforcement cameras will follow suit. In the 13 years since New York City installed red light enforcement cameras, more than 4 million violations have been issued. Those 4 million violations came from red light enforcement cameras installed on less than 1 percent of the more than 12,000 intersections with traffic signals in New York City.
In 2011, the NYPD summonsed four times as many drivers for having tinted windows as for speeding. Now, a new T.A. poll found that speeding plagues 92 percent of New Yorkers in their own neighborhood. We teamed up with Metro New York to ask tens of thousands of New Yorkers: Do you believe the police are doing enough to curb speeding in your neighborhood? For 92 percent, the answer was no. In respondents’ neighborhoods, the NYPD is not responding to the local speeding problem. Answers are still pouring in. If you have a mobile phone, you can add your voice to the mix before the poll closes on Friday: Text SPEED to 30644 to vote.
We can’t say whether your local precinct is lacking resources or concern. But we do know this: speeding is a local problem that local police aren’t fixing. So let’s cut resource allocation out of the equation. Speed enforcement cameras have proven to do the NYPD’s job for them. The only obstacle between here and a safer New York City is a few more signers-on in Albany.
Please thank our elected officials and ask them to push for this legislation to pass.