Home Rule Means Safe Streets
Home Rule Means Safe Streets
The Deadly Impact of Albany’s Control Over New York City Streets
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As the five boroughs face rising levels of traffic violence, lawmakers in Albany restrict the City of New York in how it uses life-saving tools — such as automated enforcement and lower speed limits — to keep residents safe. While improving street design is the best way to prevent traffic violence, control over speed limits and automated enforcement are additional and critical tools to allow New York City officials to respond to dangerous conditions on the street almost instantly. However, due to a lack of "home rule” over our streets, the City of New York does not control these critical tools. This must change immediately.
The state legislature and governor in Albany serve as deciders on the safety of New York City’s streets in several ways, including the number, location, and operating hours of speed safety cameras; the number of red-light enforcement cameras; the use of bus lane enforcement cameras; and local speed limits allowed. These are all proven, effective, and overwhelmingly popular means to create safe streets and change driver behavior. Transportation Alternatives examined the City of New York’s lack of home rule over traffic safety and found deadly consequences:
Looking at non-highway crashes in 2020, Nearly 40 percent of victims died in speed safety camera zones during hours when Albany requires the City of New York to switch the cameras off. Albany mandates that life-saving speed safety cameras are disabled for eight hours every night and 48 hours every weekend — more than half the hours in any given week.
Speeding is a major factor in about 80 percent of crashes that kill people in cars in New York City, but Albany prohibits the City of New York from setting its own speed limits.
More red-light violations were recorded in 2021 than any year since 2014. Still, Albany only allows the City of New York to operate red-light cameras at 150 intersections to protect people at all 13,250 signalized intersections in the five boroughs — leaving 99 percent of intersections unprotected.
New York City’s automated bus lane enforcement cameras are more effective than enforcement by police officers, catching 115 drivers who block bus lanes for each one caught by the NYPD. Still, Albany dictates how the City of New York uses bus lane enforcement cameras in a number of ways.
New York City voters support home rule to make streets safe. An Emerson College poll found that 68 percent of New York City voters support lowering the speed limit to 20 mph on residential streets near their homes, and 72 percent want the City to have authority to set its own speed limits. 85 percent of voters support the red light camera program and a majority of voters in every single borough support the speed safety camera program.
Despite the proven success of these programs, Albany still requires that New York City’s successful automated enforcement programs remain “demonstrations,” including a red-light camera program which has been a “demonstration program” for nearly 30 years — requiring the City of New York to seek reauthorization of each program every four years.
Today, New York City’s streets are in a crisis. Speeding is up, fatal crashes are up, hit and runs are up, Vision Zero has gone off-track from its initial success, and 2021, the deadliest year since 2013, was the third year in a row of rising traffic fatalities. While the causes of the crisis are many, one solution could quickly and easily make streets safer: granting home rule over traffic safety to the City of New York and ending Albany’s control over New York City’s streets. Transportation Alternatives recommends:
Immediately authorizing home rule for the City of New York to have control over life-saving automated enforcement programs and speed limits.
Passing the entire Crash Victims Bill of Rights and Safety Act to provide new tools for the City of New York to fight the rising crisis of traffic violence.
In his testimony on the 2022 New York State Executive Budget Proposal, Mayor Eric Adams asked the state to empower the city to control speed limits and more: “I would urge the state to transfer home rule to New York City,” he said. This is a positive signal and demands follow through to save lives.
Today, to install more red-light cameras, set life-saving lower speed limits, or alter the operating hours of New York City’s successful speed safety camera program, the City must go to the State government to beg for permission to save lives. As a result, the City cannot fully react to traffic violence in real-time as conditions change. New Yorkers' safety is at the mercy of the state and time-limited to the months of the year that the state is passing laws.
“Our automated enforcement programs save lives: data shows traffic injuries drop where we install these cameras. The DOT has proven for years that it can run the largest, most effective automated enforcement program in the nation and we deserve to determine how we keep New Yorkers safe on our streets”
THE EVIDENCE
SPEED-RELATED FATALITIES ARE RISING, BUT ALBANY DECIDES WHEN NEW YORK CITY IS PERMITTED TO TURN ON ITS SPEED SAFETY CAMERAS
New York City’s speed safety cameras are life-saving tools: a 55 percent drop in traffic fatalities and a 72 percent decline in speeding in school zones followed the program's launch. Speed safety cameras also avoid racial biases that may be present in armed police traffic stops and avoid the risk of a traffic stop turning violent or deadly.
However, the City of New York cannot use this life-saving technology to protect New Yorkers 24/7 because it is currently only permitted by Albany to operate speed safety cameras from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday. That means, for eight hours every night and 48 hours every weekend — 52 percent of the hours in any given week — speeding is effectively legal unless a rare police officer with a radar gun catches a speeding driver.
Here, the results of a lack of home rule over traffic safety are deadly: Looking at non-highway crashes in 2020, nearly 40 percent of victims died crashes died in speed safety camera zones, but when the cameras were turned off. The City of New York cannot act upon this data because the operating hours of speed safety cameras remain in Albany’s control.
THE 6,000+ MILES OF STREETS IN NEW YORK CITY ARE DIVERSE IN CAPACITY AND OPERATION, BUT ALMOST ALL SHARE A SPEED LIMIT DECIDED 150 MILES AWAY IN ALBANY BY LEGISLATORS FROM MUNICIPALITIES FROM AS FAR AS 300 MILES AWAY
New York City is home to more than 6,000 miles of streets, ranging in size and composition from massive eight-lane at-grade highways to narrow “shared” and “open streets” where pedestrians and drivers both use the roadbed. Despite this diversity of street architecture, the standard speed limit is locked at 25 mph, and Albany holds the key to changing that. At the moment, the City of New York can only lower speed limits on a limited number of specific types of streets, and only if accompanied by physical traffic calming measures.
Exceeding the speed limit is a major factor in about 80 percent of fatal car crashes that kill people in cars in New York City. Even a slight reduction in speeding would reduce fatal pedestrian crashes, which decrease by 17 percent for every one mph reduction in driving speed. Most pedestrians have a 70 percent chance of surviving a crash when struck at 25 mph, but only a 20 percent chance when struck at 40 mph, and nearly zero chance at speeds of 50 mph and above.
When Boston lowered speed limits to 25 mph, the number of drivers traveling over 35 mph decreased by 29 percent. When Portland made the same change, the number of cars driving between 30 and 35 mph decreased by 26 percent, and the number of cars driving over 35 mph decreased 47 percent.
RED-LIGHT RUNNING IS SKYROCKETING RIGHT NOW, BUT ALBANY DICTATES HOW MANY RED-LIGHT CAMERAS NEW YORK CITY CAN HAVE, AND ONLY ONCE EVERY FOUR YEARS
Automated enforcement is an effective and life-saving solution to the problem of red-light running. In 2019, t-bone crashes causing injuries fell as much as 58 percent at red-light camera locations, compared to a three-year period before the City installed cameras.
However, this injury-reducing tool cannot be used comprehensively to reduce skyrocketing crash and fatality rates because Albany only permits the City of New York to operate a limited number of red-light enforcement cameras — just 150 out of 13,250 signalized intersections are protected, leaving people at risk at 99 percent of intersections.
As a result, red-light running has remained a major problem in New York City. In a 2014 study, more than 42 percent of New York City drivers admitted running a red light in the prior month. A 2015 study of driver behavior at 50 New York City intersections found that nearly one in 10 drivers ran the red signal, and at some intersections, red-light-running rates were as high as 37 percent of drivers.
But this longtime problem has, in recent years, grown into a crisis. Red-light running increased by more than 50 percent, as documented by red-light enforcement cameras, between the last six months of 2019 and the last six months of 2021. Comparing the last three months of each year, violations increased by 73 percent. In 2021, cameras recorded more red-light violations than during any other year since 2014.
The all-time monthly high, in June 2021, showed 60,638 red lights run, or an average of 2,000 red lights run every day at only the 150 monitored locations. Extrapolated citywide, the problem is endemic. But the City of New York cannot respond to this crisis because the number of red-light enforcement cameras remains in Albany’s control. To install more red-light cameras, the City of New York must ask Albany for permission, but this 29-year-old “demonstration program” is not up for reauthorization until 2024.
BUS LANE CAMERAS ARE MORE EFFECTIVE THAN POLICE ENFORCEMENT, BUT ALBANY CONTROLS NEW YORK CITY’S USE OF BUS LANE CAMERAS
New York City’s buses are the slowest in the nation. This is time-tax imposed on New York City’s bus riders, who, as a population, have substantially lower incomes than those of subway riders or New Yorkers overall, and are more likely to be a single parent, foreign-born, a person of color, and have a child at home.
There is, however, an existing solution to the problem of New York City’s stalled buses: automated bus lane enforcement cameras. When bus lane enforcement cameras were first introduced, bus speeds improved by as much as 34 percent and ridership increased by as much as 21 percent. (Even a modest 0.5 mph citywide improvement in bus speeds would equate to $255 million in time saved a year.)
Traffic congestion is an urgent crisis and bus lane enforcement cameras are a critical tool to alleviate congestion, improve bus service, and make bus travel more popular. However, the City of New York’s ability to use bus lane enforcement cameras remains in Albany’s control.
Notably, in addition to avoiding racial biases or risks of violence that may occur in armed police traffic stops, New York City’s automated bus lane enforcement cameras are more effective than police officers, catching drivers who block bus lanes at a rate of 115 to one.
AUTOMATED ENFORCEMENT HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN NEW YORK CITY, BUT ALBANY SAYS CAMERA PROGRAMS ARE “DEMONSTRATIONS” EVEN AFTER NEARLY THREE DECADES OF OPERATION
Despite widespread success — crashes prevented, violations reduced, lives saved — Albany considers automated enforcement camera programs in New York City to be “demonstration programs.” This includes the speed safety camera program, a nine-year-old “demonstration program,” and the red-light enforcement camera program, a 29-year-old “demonstration program.”
This is a significant and unnecessary burden on City officials and advocates, including crash victims and people who have lost loved ones to speeding and red-light running, who must return to Albany year after year to lobby for the continuance of proven successful programs and beg for their renewal. It also prevents City officials from responding to crises in real-time. Take 2021, for example, when New York City faced the deadliest year for traffic violence since 2013. Restrictions from Albany prevented city officials from addressing traffic violence hotspots with key tools from the Vision Zero toolbox. More lives could have been saved. While red-light running and speeding are skyrocketing, New York City’s red-light camera and speed safety camera authorization laws are “demonstration programs” renewed every four years, so the City’s hands are tied from responding with urgency.
POLL AFTER POLL SHOWS NEW YORKERS WANT LOCAL CONTROL
New Yorkers want home rule over city streets. Residents of the five boroughs want more automated enforcement and lower speed limits.
An Emerson College poll found that 68 percent of New York City voters support lowering the speed limit to 20 mph on residential streets near their homes, and 72 percent want the City to have authority to set its own speed limits. A Siena College poll found that 85 percent of New York City voters support red-light enforcement cameras, including 84 percent of car-owners; 78 percent of New York City voters support automated speed safety cameras, including 73 percent of car owners. That same poll found that 59 percent of New York City voters support relying on speed safety cameras for traffic enforcement rather than NYPD officers.
The City of New York cannot give New Yorkers what they want because access to all these tools remains in Albany’s control.
RECOMMENDATIONS
New York City is facing rising levels of traffic violence and needs every possible tool to save lives. By advancing home rule over traffic safety for the City of New York, Albany can put human life ahead of political football.
While New Yorkers face a crisis of traffic violence, state officials elected in municipalities as far as 300 miles away have the final say on which tools are available to protect people on New York City streets. Today, Albany forces City officials to turn the speed safety cameras off for more than half the hours of any given week, speed limits are dictated by legislators from municipalities hundreds of miles from New York City, bus lanes are crowded with cars, red light running is skyrocketing — and the City of New York cannot do anything about it, because the ability to put highly effective solutions in place remains in Albany’s control.
The City of New York needs home rule over its speed limit and automated enforcement programs immediately. Transportation Alternatives recommends that the Governor and New York State legislature:
Immediately authorize home rule for the City of New York over automated enforcement programs and speed limits.
Pass the entire Crash Victims Bill of Rights and Safety Act, to provide new tools for the City of New York to fight the rising crises of traffic violence.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
Year |
Total Number of Red Light Camera Violations |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 486,336 |
| 2019 | 429,126 |
| 2020 | 389,066 |
| 2021 | 567,062 |
Month |
Red Light Camera Violations - 2019 | Red Light Camera Violations - 2021 | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29,432 | 28,366 | -4% |
| February | 28,435 | 23,495 | -17% |
| March | 34,612 | 37,139 | +7% |
| April | 33,748 | 42,902 | +27% |
| May | 42,531 | 52,859 | +24% |
| June | 48,210 | 60,638 | +26% |
| July | 48,328 | 59,645 | +23% |
| August | 42,630 | 57,995 | +36% |
| September | 37,782 | 58,476 | +55% |
| October | 31,215 | 53,831 | +72% |
| November | 26,799 | 47,918 | +79% |
| December | 25,404 | 43,798 | +72% |
View this data table for more red light violation details and analysis.
Source: NYC OpenData
