As reported by the NY Post, the NYPD has chosen to crack down on speeders following the city’s lowering its speed limit from 30 mph to 25.
The reduced speed limit took effect on November 7 of this year and drivers have been bombarded with tickets ever since that date. Immediately following the switch officers issued a whopping 3,772 tickets between November 5 and November 12, 2014—more than double the number of tickets from the same period last year!
New York State, famous for everything from Broadway to Buffalo wings, now has another claim to fame: Popular Mechanics has named New York the third worst state in the U.S. to get a speeding ticket in.
A quick look at the fines associated with speeding tickets will help highlight why NY ranks so high on this list.
Long Island’s school zone camera program has had its fair share of controversy but now, as CBS News New York reports, Nassau County residents are taking to the streets in protest.
A New York speeding camera, similar to the ones causing controversy in Nassau County. (Photo Source: SILive.com)
While government officials argue that these speed cameras are all about child and pedestrian safety, the citizen-organized group “Residents Opposing School Zone Speed Cameras” contends that the $80 tickets are nothing more than a revenue-generating scheme for the cash-strapped County.
According to a recent article, NYPD traffic data shows that there have been 4,756 speeding summonses issued in the borough of Staten Island through September of this year. This is compared with 2,412 summonses issued through the first nine months of 2013, a 97% increase!
As the article mentions, “tickets issued for disobeying street signage in 2014 are also forecast to climb about 50% in Staten Island as well.”
According to a report by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, more pedestrians and cyclists were injured in New York City last year than in the previous five years. The stats reveal that total traffic injuries increased by about 2% from 2012 to 2013, with pedestrians and cyclists bearing the brunt of it. Pedestrian injuries were up 5% and cyclist injuries rose an alarming 8%!
Sadly, children accounted for many of the injuries as NYC drivers injured 4,278 children aged 13 and under—8 of whom were killed. In fact, motor vehicle crashes have consistently been the leading cause of death due to injury for children within the 5 boroughs.
Effective November 7, New York City is lowering the default speed limit on local streets from 30mph to 25mph.
Mayor de Blasio who stated under the new NYC speed limit, police officers will have discretion about ticketing low-level speeders. (Photo Source: Wikipedia)
This new law is seen as the largest and most influential policy change enacted by Mayor Bill de Blasio in his “Vision Zero” initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities within the 5 boroughs. The law’s potential impact on pedestrian safety and, as cynics point out, on the city’s traffic ticket revenue could be huge.
New York State data on the amount of money collected in traffic fines reveals that certain local communities have received significantly more fines than others.
For instance, the area receiving the least amount of revenue was Grand Island, which got only $166,000 in fines. Similarly, in the town of Lancaster, last year’s fine revenue totaled $231,000.
An Amherst, NY police car. Police in Amherst generated over $1.4 million in revenue in 2013 from traffic tickets. (Photo Source: Wikipedia)
Clarence received $500,000 worth of revenue for traffic infractions within its borders and the town of Hamburg took in $550,000.
However, Cheektowaga has a stretch of road that notoriously gives out the most speeding tickets in all of New York State.
Under Vision Zero, New York has installed numerous speed cameras, reduced its speed limits in order to catch more drivers, and dramatically increased the issuance of New York speeding tickets.
President Obama, whose administration has endorsed Mayor DeBlasio’s “Vision Zero” by allocating $25 million in funding. (Photo Source: Wikipedia)
Similarly, the United States Department of Transportation announced that $25 million in federal gas tax funds would be given to the NYC Department of Transportation in support of the mayor’s initiative.
A police car hiding behind some trees to catch speeding vehicles. Here are the top 10 locations for such speed traps in New York. (Photo Source: Wikipedia)
We see it all the time, New York police officers lurking on the side of the road waiting for your vehicle to pass at the exact moment the 65 MPH zone drops to 45 MPH. Of course, these speed traps – and their enforcement – are much more common in some areas than others.
A new analysis of state ticketing data shows that these are the top 10 speed trap locations in New York State:
According to County Executive Edward Mangano, there were problems with the cameras installed at six school locations due to malfunctions in the equipment and timing mechanisms. Consequently, Mangano said he is declaring amnesty on all of those fines.
Mangano announced the amnesty via Twitter, tweeting, “I am declaring amnesty for all speed camera tickets issued this summer.”
However, now that school is officially in session, enforcement has resumed.
Mangano revealed to 1010 WINS, “Clearly, there were some errors in the speed zone violations, so we’re meeting with the vendor and our traffic safety department to make certain that those errors are corrected… so as a matter of fairness, we’re eliminating all those tickets.”
He continued, “Many of the residents believed there was not enough notice, so this will serve as a notice of the new state law that there will be speed cameras in school zones come this September with the opening of school.”
Similarly, anyone who already paid the fine for their school zone camera ticket will be issued a full refund from the Traffic and Parking Violations Bureau.
In total, Nassau issued 30,108 citations at the five schools.
This is another prime example of how camera tickets are not very reliable and further proof that there is no substitute for an officer actually issuing a traffic ticket.
Remember, whenever you are approaching a school—whether you think it is in session or not—you ought to slow down and look for police officers patrolling nearby.
If you recently received a New York speeding ticket, contact Rosenblum Law today at 888-434-0406.
Mangano revealed to