The first of hundreds of new school zone speed cameras was installed on the Upper West Side last week. (NYC Mayor’s Office)
May 28, 2019 By Laura Hanrahan
The Department of Transportation installed the first of hundreds of new speed cameras–specifically in school zones–on Friday.
The new speed camera, which went up near P.S. 199 on the Upper West Side, was the first to be installed since the city got the go ahead from Albany that it could put speed cameras in every school zone across the five boroughs.
The installation comes just weeks after Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill that renewed and expanded on 2013 legislation that had authorized a five-year pilot program. The 2013 legislation, which expired last year, allowed the city to install speed cameras in 140 school zones throughout the city.
The new law expands the program to include all 750 school zones.
“Our streets are about to get a lot safer for our children,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “We fought to expand our speed camera program and we won in Albany. Now it’s time to rapidly scale up our program to save lives and keep our kids safe.”
The DOT said that the pilot program was successful in saving lives and is hopeful that with the program’s expansion more lives will be saved. During the first five-years, the DOT reported a 60 percent drop in speeding infractions in school zones where the cameras had been installed, as well as a 21 percent decline in the number of people killed or severely injured in crashes in the zones.
“Vision Zero is about changing our lives once and for all for the better. It’s about changing drivers’ behavior once and for all,” de Blasio said. “And we see it working year after year.”
Under the previous law, the cameras were only permitted to operate on school days and during school hours. The new law allows the city to keep them in operation on all weekdays between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. including during school vacations.
The $62 million project will begin by prioritizing school zones with high crash rates and historically high speeds. Each month for the rest of the year, 40 cameras will be installed in school zones. In 2020, the number will increase to 60 per month.
The city expects every school zone to have at least one camera by June 2020, but many zones will eventually have two or three.
Motorist found to be going more than 10 miles per hour above the speed limit in a school zone will be hit with a $50 ticket.
The DOT did not provide a list of where the cameras will be installed.
DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg says she expects the speed camera program to pay for itself. From the existing 140 speed cameras alone, $44 million in revenue was brought in last year.
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17 Comments
This is all about the money. DOT violations probably brings in the most money for the city. Soon, the new speed rate will be a crawl of 15 miles an hour. They’ll also quote statistics that you will never see proof of.
Vision Zero is as its name implies about having no vision. That is DeBlasio’s and Polly Trottenberg’s stock in trade. They have made NYC all but impossible for vehicular traffic to traverse. Poor City Planning has been the Hallmark of his Administration, and it showed in worse productivity and increased costs for any business that operates within the Five Boroughs.
The Administration spends a fortune appeasing Lobbyists from Construction Trades, Real Estate Developers and Special Interest Groups like Transportation Alternatives, while small businesses suffer the consequences of “Polly’s Follies”.
Deliveries take longer, Emergency Service Services response times have increased and the “Quality of Life” for existing residents has diminished under the rule of these Fascists.
If you’re in high school or college and don’t know how to cross a street yet, you’ve got some serious problems ahead in life.
Put them on the corner of 39th Street and 47th Ave up the street from Queen Vocational HS – every morning cars blow through the Yellow and Red light, in 20+ years of living in this neighborhood I have seen at least 40 crashes and one of my elderly neighbors get hit by a car rapidly turning left on the corner of 39th St .
Please put them by PS150. PS 11 doesn’t need them as much since they have the much safer single lane configuration. By 150 the switch to two lanes has happened as of 38th street and drivers take that as a cue to speed up. It’s still way safer than before, but let’s just get the safest possible since NYPD never enforce speeding anyway.
I for one will gladly take your money each time you break the law and endanger our safety.
trust me, this city never gives anything back to the people. it only takes.
Cameras only prevent people from going fast near cameras, it’s not a solution. Can someone please tell me why there are cameras where going 25 vs 40 makes no difference but no cameras where it’s actually more populated?
For example, I was in Uber the other day, he slowed down to a crawl climbing west on queens blvd approaching PC Richard, but then he sped up once he entered sunnyside, he was definitely going faster than 35mph when we were going pass 48th street. So cars crawl to 25mph where there is no cross walk, not a single pedestrian in sight, wide 5 lane blvd, but it’s OK for them to speed up after they pass the camera? Seriously.. forget about queens blvd, people should NOT be jaywalking, start ticketing people for jaywalking, putting themselves and others in danger. And start catching people speeding on cross streets.
Stick your head out and you’ll see on a daily basis many cars speeding pass narrow streets to catch green light. Maybe they need more cameras on cross streets.
We should narrow Queens Blvd in Sunnyside to two lanes in each direction.
Many of you think that the city is adding these speeding cameras for our safety and the safety of our kids. Well you couldn’t be more WRONG! This is just another way for the city to take your hard earned money to put it in their pockets. Well what happened to the $44 million in revenue in the last year alone? I still see streets full of potholes. How is this simply not a way for the city it make more money? Convince me otherwise.
The city hates this one quick trick: not speeding
This should be illegal……talk about Jack boots commie influences….you will obey….just like getting a ticket in a work zone when Not a single person is working there….and a cop is there just to write tickets…
The new law allows the city to keep them in operation on all weekdays between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. including during school vacations.
Good. People drive like animals on our streets. I’m tired of it.
The problem is that you probably don’t drive. Parents should be in control and teach kids to not play in the street. Simple as that. Everyone can be safe if the kids don’t play in traffic Lanes.
This is all about money!
Speed bumps are very effective but they don’t bring in revenue.
You can still speed in-between speed bumps.
I do think raised crosswalks, mid-block speed bumps, and curb extensions are all good ideas.
But I also think cameras should be placed in high-risk zones. There is no reason there should also be cameras on dangerous roads like Queens Blvd.
Problem is, kids need better parenting if this is such a huge problem. Last I checked, I don’t hear about kids getting smashed on our streets any more or less now or before de’commieo started this zero vision nonsense. But this isn’t about kids, it’s about money unfortunately. Time to leave NYC.. So sad, this is my home, where I was born, but the lowlife crap that has come here has now changed the social fabric for the worst voting for leftist extremist. Socialist society doesn’t work…