Skip to main content

New York to implement speed cameras near schools

New York City is to establish a five-year demonstration programme to monitor school speed zones in New York City with speed cameras and to allow evidence captured on camera to be used to impose liability for speeding. This new law will enhance the safety of children, pedestrians and drivers in city school speed zones by encouraging drivers to drive with caution through these areas and supplement law enforcement efforts to catch violations and prevent accidents caused by speeding. New York Governor Andrew M
August 16, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
New York City is to establish a five-year demonstration programme to monitor school speed zones in New York City with speed cameras and to allow evidence captured on camera to be used to impose liability for speeding.

This new law will enhance the safety of children, pedestrians and drivers in city school speed zones by encouraging drivers to drive with caution through these areas and supplement law enforcement efforts to catch violations and prevent accidents caused by speeding.

New York Governor Andrew M Cuomo signed the legislation, saying “Speeding in school zones puts our children at risk and preventing this reckless behaviour should be a priority.”

“This law will allow New York City to undertake a pilot program to see if using speed cameras in school zones is an effective way of preventing accidents and protecting both pedestrians and drivers. These cameras will supplement efforts by law enforcement to root out speeding violations in these protected areas, and encourage drivers to use caution when driving through school zones. Overall, this will contribute to a safer school environment for our students.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg added, “Innovative traffic engineering and aggressive enforcement have resulted in traffic fatalities in New York City reaching all-time record lows in the past decade. But speeding remains the single greatest contributing factor in traffic fatalities in New York City. Decreasing the number of drivers who speed is a proven lifesaving measure and this legislation does exactly that.”

The law takes effect on 31 August and authorises New York City to set up speed cameras in up to 20 school speed zones at a given time.

Related Content

  • UN safety drive for 30 km/h speed limit
    May 20, 2021
    Child Health Initiative global ambassador Zoleka Mandela says: 'Above 30 is a death sentence'
  • Foundation funds research for informed campaigning
    April 29, 2015
    ITS International talks to Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the transport research and lobbying organisation, the RAC Foundation. It is through the eyes of an economist that Professor Stephen Glaister, emeritus professor of transport and infrastructure at Imperial College London and director of the RAC Foundation, views current and future transport problems. Having spent 30 years at the London School of Economics and another 10 at Imperial, the move to the RAC Foundation was a radical departure from
  • Iteris sees red over US road deaths
    November 26, 2019
    Drivers who run red lights are killing more than two people per day in the US, says an AAA report. James Esquivel of Iteris sets out some practical ways in which this might be stopped
  • The delicate issue of pursuing toll evaders
    May 6, 2015
    Toll evaders create major problems for tolling companies – of which lost revenue is only one. Open road tolling maximises roadway capacity but non-payers create enforcement problems Toll road operators are increasingly employing open road or free-flow electronic tolling to minimise travel times.