As New York Daily News reports, this past September, not a single speeding ticket was handed out in certain neighborhoods, including Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Carrol Gardens, Gowanus and Park Slope, located within the 76th and 78th precincts of New York City.
Unfortunately, the complete absence of speeding citations does not correlate to unusually safe driving in those neighborhoods. Rather, three fatal pedestrian accidents occurred this year in those areas and residents continue to claim that spotting speeding drivers throughout the 76th and 78th precincts is a common occurrence.
Nor can the dearth of speeding tickets be attributed to police officers’ unawareness of speeding in those areas. In contrast to the 76th and 78th precincts, police officers patrolling the neighboring 77th Precinct pulled over 77 drivers for speeding in the same timeframe. A bit further off, 45 drivers were ticketed for speeding in September in the 94th Precinct. Moreover, efforts by the Department of Transportation, such as removing a lane of car traffic from speedways in an attempt to calm traffic, make it clear that speeding in the city remains a concern.
However, with drivers who, over time, become accustomed to any changes made to the roadway itself to derail speeding, citations by police officers remain the strongest deterrents to speeding in the city. Perhaps that is why year-to-date speeding tickets are up 25%, despite the lack of any speeding citations issued in September.