New York City has seen a dramatic reduction in speeding since its speed cameras were turned on 24/7, with violations dropping 27% since the switch was flipped in August, the Adams administration revealed on Wednesday.
The city’s 2,200 speed cameras were turned on 24/7 on August 1, after the permanent program was approved by Albany in June. In their first month of permanent operation, the cameras logged 755,000 leadfoots traveling at least 11 miles per hour above the speed limit, dropping precipitously to 661,000 in September and 586,000 in October.
By November, the number of speed demons caught by the cameras had dropped to 565,000, a more than 27% plunge in just four months. The mayor deemed the decline one of his administration’s most notable “public safety wins” of 2022.
“We knew these changes wouldn’t happen overnight, but, every day, we continue to dam the many rivers that feed the sea of violence in our city with investments in both intervention and prevention,” Hizzoner said in a statement. “We’ll continue to engage New Yorkers at every level on the issue of public safety and make sure 2023 is even safer.”
Speed cams, which are only allowed to operate in 750 Big Apple school zones, were previously only turned on during the day from 6 am to 10 pm on weekdays, being switched off at night and on weekends. The city bolstered its lobbying effort for 24/7 speed cams with Department of Transportation data showing an exceptional increase in speeding outside of camera hours.
DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez credited 24/7 speed cameras as one reason that deaths on the city’s streets have declined this year over last, with 231 people being killed in collisions in the first 11 months of this year compared to 268 in the same period last year. Pedestrian deaths in particular have declined this year, with 103 recorded so far in 2022 compared to 121 in the same period of 2021.
“While one fatality is one too many, we can be grateful that fatalities have declined overall and that we are defying national trends with the near-lowest levels of pedestrian fatalities in the city’s history,” said Rodriguez in a statement. “This is, at least in part, due to our success in securing 24/7 speed camera operation.”
Pedestrian deaths in 2022 were the second-lowest of any year in the Vision Zero era. The 7,484 pedestrian injuries in 2022 are the highest since the pandemic started, but that number is well below pre-COVID levels; 10,399 pedestrians were injured in 2019, according to city data.
Transportation honchos have touted a number of other measures this year aimed at reducing road deaths, such as making changes to 1,400 intersections and proposing car-limiting redesigns on major thoroughfares.
Even so, the most brazen scofflaws have come up with workarounds to protect their ability to drive recklessly. Innumerable drivers in New York purposely deface their license plates to avoid detection by speed cams, inspiring vigilantes of sorts to take matters into their own hands.
