Speed Cameras Could Soon Come To Hundreds More NYC Schools

NEW YORK — More New York City drivers could soon find themselves smiling for a speed camera. The city could use cameras to ticket speeders in as many as 750 school zones under legislation state lawmakers passed Tuesday.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he will sign the measure, which will more than quadruple the size of a program that city and state officials say has significantly driven down speeding, injuries and deaths near schools.

"No parent, senior, or pedestrian of any age should live in fear of crossing the street because of speeding traffic," state Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Brooklyn), one of the bill's sponsors, said in a statement. "This program slows traffic and saves lives. Plain and simple."

The city currently uses cameras in between 160 and 170 school zones, a Department of Transportation spokeswoman said. State law previously authorized them in 140 zones, but the City Council passed legislation, helped by an executive order from Cuomo, allowing the program to grow after that law expired last summer.

"We came up with a very creative vehicle to do it through executive order because I wouldn’t let lives be at risk because we were playing politics in Albany," Cuomo said.

Drivers whom the cameras catch going more than 10 MPH over the speed limit can get slapped with a $50 fine. The state Legislature's bill would let the city use the cameras from 6 to 10 a.m. on weekdays, while requiring signs telling drivers that they're active.

The measure would allow for more than twice as many cameras as Cuomo's state budget proposal, which called for increasing the number to 290.

The speed cameras have helped New York City defy national trends by driving down traffic deaths for five straight years, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said. Fatalities in camera-equipped school zones dropped 55 percent after they were installed, and speeding at camera locations falls 63 percent during school hours, the department has said in a report.

Mayor Bill de Blasio praised the Legislature for moving to expand the program.

"We will stop at nothing to aggressively pursue tools like speed cameras that we know slow down drivers and save lives around schools across the city," de Blasio, a Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday.