One of many unresolved legislative issue as Albany fumbles its way into summer is the legal status of New York City’s red light cameras. The state legislature maintains control over the survival and extent of the camera program by including sunset clauses each time it authorizes the program. The city’s authorization to use its 50 cameras will expire at the end of 2004 unless the legislature extends it. Traffic calming advocates want the program expanded, because the cameras have a clear track record in reducing crashes at intersections they are deployed in.

The State Senate has acted on extending the program. However, the State Assembly has held the program up. Assembly Codes Committee chair Joseph Lentol surprised traffic safety advocates by suggesting in recent news articles that the cameras’ purpose and placement have been more about revenue for the city than deterrence. Last winter, Lentol presided over the NYS Assembly’s fact-finding hearing on reducing injuries and deaths caused by reckless or negligent drivers (MTR 449), and helped push truck route safety legislation through the legislature last year. Many witnesses at the February hearing, including NYC DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall, testified to the efficacy of red-light cameras in deterring dangerous driving.

NYC would like more of the cameras, because they work well. Commissioner Weinshall declared in a recent letter to the editor that NYC red light camera intersections saw a 10% overall reduction in collision-related injuries and a 19% decline in pedestrian injuries over six years, as well as lower incidence of light running. The NYC City Council recently passed a home-rule resolution – a request to the legislature – that the camera program be expanded by another 50 and be extended until 2008. That measure has not been taken up in Albany.

This month, Brooklyn Community Board 1, in Lentol’s district, agreed with the city in a resolution calling on the state to allow a minimum of 100 red-light cameras. Transportation committee members had heard that Lentol was holding the red-light camera program up to win funding to reopen several firehouses. The committee opposed holding one public safety issue hostage to another.

Transportation Alternatives denounced the bargaining tactic in a release, telling Lentol and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to get out of the way of city traffic safety improvements once and for all.

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