With all New York City public school students set to return to their classrooms for in-person instruction next week, Mayor Bill de Blasio has unveiled enhanced efforts to bolster traffic and pedestrian safety throughout the city.
On Friday, the mayor announced that the NYPD will ramp up its traffic safety enforcement efforts throughout the fall, with an emphasis on school zones during the upcoming week.
“New York City schools have the most rigorous COVID-19 safety protocols in the country, but our mission isn’t complete until all facilities are safe from traffic violence, too,” de Blasio said.
On Monday, Sept. 13, all New York City public school students will return to their school buildings for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with no remote learning option being offered this year.
In an effort to protect some of the city’s most vulnerable pedestrians as they return to school, the NYPD will crack down on speeding, reckless driving and failure to yield to pedestrians in school zones throughout the five boroughs.
Failure to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks has been a contributing factor in more than 60% of pedestrian fatalities this year, according to the city.
The NYPD will assign additional officers to increase enforcement of illegal phone use and texting while driving.
The department’s efforts will also target drunk drivers, provide additional highway officers to deter speeding and focus on motorcycle safety by targeting both reckless motorcyclists and dangerous drivers whose behavior creates hazardous conditions for motorcyclists.
“Our children are our most precious resource. As the city has been working tirelessly to ensure that classrooms are ready for their safe return, the NYPD is committed to making sure our roadways are safe for the return of all of our city’s students,” said NYPD Chief of Transportation Kim Royster.
In addition to the enhanced enforcement efforts, NYPD and DOT street teams were scattered throughout the five boroughs earlier this week to remind drivers to exercise caution in the coming weeks as hundreds of thousands of students return to school.
“School’s back in session, and we’re proud to be partnering with the NYPD to put drivers on notice – reckless driving and speeding are going to be met with stiff penalties,” said DOT Commissioner Hank Gutman.
CALLS FOR 24/7 SPEED CAMERAS
The mayor also used the announcement to renew his calls for the state legislature to expand the city’s school zone speed camera program and allow the cameras to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
“Thanks to the tireless public servants at DOT and NYPD, our schools will be safer than ever this year. Now it’s time to take the next step: Albany must allow us to operate our speed cameras overnight and hold dangerous drivers accountable, no matter when they break the law,” de Blasio said.
In December, the city released its Automated Speed Enforcement Program Report, a comprehensive review of the program’s history and efficacy ranging from 2014 through 2019.
De Blasio, citing various findings from the report, called on the state to amend the existing law, allowing cameras to operate around the clock, compared to their current operating hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays.
The mayor noted that over one-third, or 36%, of non-highway traffic fatalities in 2020 occurred in school camera zones at times cameras could not issue tickets under the current law.
The report laid out statistical evidence indicating that speed cameras do, in fact, reduce speeding, crashes and injuries along corridors in which they’re installed, and provides further evidence that expanding upon existing operating hours could reap additional public safety benefits.
The report analyzed the number of yearly crashes and injuries in school zones before and after the installation of a fixed speed camera.
The “before” numbers are represented by a three-year average of annual injuries and crashes within school zone speed camera corridors prior to installation, while the “after” numbers represent the total number of injuries and crashes that occurred in the full year following installation.
Prior to speed camera installations, these corridors saw an average of 1,089 annual crashes, 839 of which included injuries.
In the year following installation, the corridors saw 936 total crashes, 748 of which included injuries, decreases of 14% and 10.8%, respectively.
The report noted that an average of 1,013 motor vehicle occupants were injured along these corridors in the years prior to speed camera installation, with 821 injured the year after, a decrease of 19%.
Cyclists also saw a 16.7% decrease in injuries, from 36 to 30, with pedestrians seeing a 5.5% decline, from 182 to 172, according to the data.
Overall, total injuries decreased 16.9% along school zone speed camera corridors in the year following installation.
The number of average weekly violations issued at new speed camera locations tends to decline rapidly in the weeks following installation, indicating that the cameras are effectively deterring drivers from speeding within those zones.
According to the report, the average number of weekly violations issued at new speed camera locations during the first week was approximately 455, as of summer 2019.
By the 18th week following installation, the average number of weekly violations issued at the location drastically dropped to 124, representing a 73% decrease in speeding.
While the cameras have been effective in deterring speeding during operating hours, the report found that many crashes and injuries take place within the school zones at times the cameras are not permitted to operate.
By proposing to expand the city’s speed camera program to around-the-clock, yearlong operation, the administration hopes to cut down on the number of crashes and injuries occurring during overnight and weekend hours.
In 2018, more than 5,500 crashes occurred in school speed zones during times cameras could not operate, with 1,439 happening overnight and 4,081 happening during the weekend.
These 5,520 crashes at non-operational hours account for 33.6% of total crashes within school speed zones, according to the data.
During these off-hours, there were 3,457 injuries, 923 overnight and 2,534 on the weekends, accounting for 37% of all injuries within school speed zones, the report stated.
Additionally, the data shows that 150 New Yorkers were killed or seriously injured while the cameras were off in 2018, representing 36.9% of all people killed or seriously injured within school speed zones.
“We urgently need Albany to pass common sense legislation that allows our automated speed cams to operate 24/7, because lives are not only at risk when school is in session,” Gutman said.