STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — New York City might add one other automated enforcement instrument to assist rein in reckless drivers, nevertheless it’s unclear whether or not the mayor intends to take action.
As drivers all through the 5 boroughs are effectively conscious, New York City’s streets are coated with 1000’s of velocity, pink gentle and bus lane cameras that robotically ticket drivers for breaking the foundations of the street.
With the brand new school 12 months now underway, some have been left questioning why the town hasn’t added cameras designed to catch motorists driving previous school buses when their “stop” arms are prolonged, regardless of the City Council passing a invoice late final 12 months empowering the mayor to just do that.
In December, the City Council handed Local Law 10, which permits Mayor Eric Adams to create “a demonstration program to use photographic evidence to impose liability on vehicle owners for passing a stopped school bus.”
The invoice was co-sponsored by former Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who at the moment serves because the commissioner of the Department of Transportation.
The program, if applied, might use stationary cameras positioned inside school zones or cameras affixed to the edges of school buses.
Either manner, drivers who’re caught blowing previous school buses when their “stop” arms are out can be topic to a financial fantastic, just like these imposed for different automated enforcement violations, although a set greenback quantity has not but been established.
Despite being empowered to create this system and the town’s clear affinity for automated enforcement, Adams didn’t elect to implement it in the course of the first eight months of his tenure previous to the beginning of the brand new school 12 months.
City Hall didn’t reply to a request for remark from the Advance/SILive.com, however offered the following statement to Streetsblog:
“The Adams administration will do whatever it takes to keep children safe as they travel to and from school. We are exploring this particular issue and evaluating whether this kind of program would have a significant impact.”
The metropolis additionally advised Streetsblog that there haven’t been many accidents related to drivers passing stopped school buses, and no such fatalities have occurred since 2014.
However, drivers dashing previous stopped school buses is a serious subject not simply in New York, however throughout the nation, with a recent survey from the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation discovering that this reckless habits happens roughly 41 million occasions within the United States throughout a single school 12 months.
Additionally, a study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration discovered that there have been 1,080 school bus-related crashes from 2010 by means of 2019, with 240 school-age kids dying because of this.
Transportation advocates have careworn the significance of utilizing automated enforcement to curb harmful driving behaviors, significantly when it may well higher defend a number of the metropolis’s most susceptible street customers.
“Automated enforcement works, and we should be exploring new ways to use this Vision Zero tool to save lives on our streets — especially to keep kids safe,” mentioned Cory Epstein, spokesperson for Transportation Alternatives.
“The City Council overwhelmingly approved this pilot last year, and we are disappointed that the Adams administration hasn’t yet made it happen. Failing to implement legislation passed by the Council sets a bad precedent for the city and the future of our streets,” Epstein added.