I don’t believe speeding alone causes accidents, as a driver may be reckless or intoxicated as well. With that said speeding is always a problem, especially in the outer boroughs and is a danger to drivers and pedestrians. What is needed is more enforcement to reign in speeders and aggressive driving, something that I would advocate for as Public Advocate. I would also like to see stricter fines and penalties for speeding and aggressive driving. Through my five borough traffic and transportation committee’s, I would recommend improvements to roadways to slow down drivers that have high tendency of spending that result in accidents as well as recommended that the NYPD target these areas for enforcement.

6. On the most basic level, the law must be enforced. The reason speeding is against the law is because it endangers lives, and individuals who speed, and certainly those whose reckless driving actually causes injury, should have to face the consequences. As Public Advocate I would actively analyze the statistics with regard to speeding in order to ascertain how selectively it’s being enforced, and what improvements could be made in both investigating and reporting speeding. As a civil liberties lawyer, I am intrigued by automated enforcement mechanisms such as photo radar, because it addresses the concern many would have of racial profiling. The use of red-light cameras to capture automobiles running red lights is okay from a civil liberties perspective because the cameras only focus on the license plate – they do not capture who is in the car and don’t present a civil liberties privacy issue.

Speed related fatal crashes can be reduced through increased fines, greater deployment of traffic police, increased radar use and “this is how fast you are driving” signs. We should also work with the community, schools, senior centers and the Department of Transportation to identify streets for closure during school days or for the addition of obstructions like speed bumps to eliminate speeders and make the streets safer for children, pedestrians and bikers.

Speeding is clearly a danger to many New Yorkers – from those riding in cars to pedestrians walking on our City’s streets. We need to identify patterns and high need areas, and implement specific measures to prevent the deadly outcomes of this problem. In the Council, I introduced legislation (Int 0863-2008) calling on the Department of Transportation to conduct traffic studies for any school with students at or below the eighth grade level to determine what dangers our children are facing and how we can best protect them from traffic-related injuries and fatalities. I am drafting similar legislation for senior centers. This type of targeted approach is one way we can begin to address this critical issue.

The statistics on motor vehicle crashes, and on fatal crashes in particular, should be alarming for all New Yorkers. Representing Queens Boulevard, a roadway that historically has been the site of far too many accidents, has only heightened my appreciation for the need to improve safety measures. Clearly the relationship between speeding and automobile crashes indicates that the city must do more to enforce speed limits currently on the books, and to reduce speed limits especially in high-risk areas.
On the City Council, I’ve repeatedly brought pedestrian-safety issues to DOT, and have gotten results that protect New Yorkers, building cross walks and median dividers at the Pulaski Bridge exit, and implementing traffic calming speed humps in Sunnyside.
And working with Transportation Alternatives, I released recommendations to improve pedestrian safety around schools. New York’s children walk or bike to school 63% of the time, far ahead of the national average. I called on DOT to expedite school traffic pattern safety studies, and to implement leading pedestrian intervals, speed limit enforcement cameras, and real time statistic reporting.
As Public Advocate, I’ll continue to protect pedestrians from speeding vehicles, and to hold DOT accountable.