Frustrated by the inaction of the NY State legislature on a bill to allow expansion of NYC's modest red-light camera program, the NYC Dept. of Transportation is likely to install dummy camera boxes at 200 intersections, the NY Post reported last week. The cameras would look exactly like the 50 red light cameras in operation around the city. The cameras photograph license plates of motorists who drive through red lights. Because they will not facilitate the issuance of traffic tickets, the decoy cameras do not require state legislative approval.

Although willing to approve a bill that lets drivers turn right on red in Staten Island over the objections of Mayor Giuliani, the NYPD, NYC DOT and safety advocates, the legislature has balked at expanding the highly effective light camera program and starting a new speed camera program (MTR #330). In particular, Assembly Transportation Committee Chair David Gannt (Rochester) has voiced concerns over the encroachment of cameras on civil rights and police jobs. Advocates wonder why Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who hails from Manhattan, has not reminded Gannt that drivers do not have the right to break the law, and that NYC pedestrian deaths and injuries remain far too high.

Red light and speed cameras have proven records boosting traffic law compliance. The Daily News reported last week that additional red light cameras installed last January along Queens Boulevard - a roadway notorious for its 72 pedestrian deaths over the last 7 years - have yielded a 54% reduction in red light violations there. 11,000 violations recorded in the last 6 months of 2000 shrank to 5,000 in the first six months of 2001. The British Medical Journal has reported that speed cameras in London produced a 60% reduction in deaths on the M25, one of the city's busiest highways.

NY Assembly Takes Wrong Turn - August 20, 2001

It’s Official: Red Light Running Rampant - May 28, 2001

Speed Cameras Promise Big Traffic Calming Benefits - May 14, 2001

MTR search facilityand back issues:

Search our database of all past issues of Mobilizing the Region since Fall, 1994.

Go to indexof all Mobilizing the Region back issues