New Yorker they want more Speed Camera

In New York City, speed cameras can only be placed within 1/4 mile of a school and there is now a limit of a total of 140.

The law permitting speed cameras passed by the New York State Legislature required New York City to perform a traffic study in advance to prove the need for the speed cameras; to prove that traffic accidents caused by speed had injured or killed children within 1/4 mile on the way to or from school.

The city failed to do the required traffic study because the accident records simply do not support the premise that children are being injured by speeding near their schools. That means the city is operating the speed cameras in violation of the law.

In addition, no traffic study was ever done after the cameras were installed, to show that the cameras had increased safety. The accident records do not show that.

At the news conference in the above link, people are complaining that speeding drivers are injuring or killing children in New York City. They cite the unfortunate death of Samuel Cohen Eckstein, who was killed by a driver in front of his house after he ran into the street. There were no witnesses, but people think that he "must have been speeding."

Sammy's death was tragic, but it had nothing to do with a school speed limit and no speed camera would be placed on his street if school speed cameras are expanded in the future.

dobs108

471,625 speeding tickets were issued by speed cameras.
(Compared to 117,767 speeding tickets issued by officers.)
Speeding cameras issued $23,581,250 in fines.
Vehicle crashes near cameras declined 3.9%
Crashes with injuries near cameras declined 13.4% *

http://project.wnyc.org/speed-cameras/

WNYC counted crashes within a 500 yard radius of the camera. That would include accidents outside the school speed zone.

NY State law limits the total length of a school speed zone marked with speed limit signs to 1/4 mile or 440 yards. The speed camera law is defective in that it allows a speed camera to be operated within 1/4 mile of an entrance of the school. This may put the speed camera outside the school speed zone about half the time.

Even further away, the WNYC statistics included accidents 500 yards away from the camera. Worst case, the camera could be 440 yards away from the school, which adds up to accidents 940 yards away from the school are included for statistical purposes.

Even worse, WNYC used a 500 yard radius from the camera, not along-the-road inside the school speed zone. Accidents on other streets not related to the school would be included for statistical purposes.

The NY State Legislature has been expecting New York City to submit a traffic study, required by law, showing that speeding cars inside school speed zones have injured chidren going to school. This has not been done because the accident records don't support the premise. WNYC can manipulate the data and publish it to the public however they want, but they are not in charge of the official traffic study which was never submitted to the Legislature.

dobs108

If they really want to solve the problem, instead of taking a picture of the car, they should mount an automatic aiming rifle and shoot the speeding driver dead!

Speeding in the school area will come to a screeching halt in a hurry!

Hopefully they respect the distance allowed. There was an issue on Staten Island a few times with illegal cameras

Damn, and I thought I was an extremist!

So ... a government breaks the law to catch lawbreakers .... say it ain't so!

This is a very well done page on NYC speed cameras -

https://www.facebook.com/notes/michael-reilly/speed-cameras-...

And here is another good link -

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/05/staten_island_s...