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History of Tribeca Buildings
The neighborhood’s camera infrastructure
NYC DOT image
The mayor’s office sent around a press release announcing that they have installed several hundred red light cameras — up to 600, the maximum allowed in the city. The fines are $50 — I got one years ago right where the elevated Henry Hudson Parkway goes to grade at 59th Street, and I will tell you they work. City DOT’s data confirms it.
I have yet to get a list of locations — and I might not, and in fact to date Manhattan has the fewest cameras — though the cameras look like the ones above; the intersections are not signed. But I did come across (and I think J. mentioned this before) the live cameras stationed around the neighborhood. The link is here; click on the icon to see the real-time images.
So back to the red light cameras: The program was initiated in 1994, during the Dinkins administration, when the state allowed for 150 cameras — about 1 percent of the city’s 13,700 intersections. This was the nation’s first red-light camera program. The Adams administration then requested an expansion, which the governor granted in 2024 — 30 years later. That gets us up to the 600 cameras now being installed.
And since we’ve been talking about speed limits, NB that the speed limit below Canal is now 20 mph. And the speed-camera program is much more robust: as of 2023, there were over 2,200 cameras operational in the city, and after there was an increase in speeding and fatalities during covid, the state granted authorization for speed camera violations to be issued 24 hours a day, seven days a week at all camera locations. These seem to work too:
The key findings for 2023:
• Daily violations at speed camera locations have decreased 94 percent since the start of the program in 2014.
• 74 percent of vehicles that receive violations receive no more than one or two per year.
• Locations with cameras installed in 2022 showed 14 percent fewer injuries and fatalities between 2021 and 2023 compared to control corridors without cameras.
• Violations in the overnight and weekend hours decreased 40 percent in the two years since August 2022 when these expanded hours first went into effect.
• Following the expansion to overnight and weekend enforcement, locations with speed cameras saw 9 percent fewer injuries compared to control locations without cameras during the overnight and weekend hours.
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I’m all for it.
Would appreciate info from City about chronic super speeders and repeat unlawful drivers – like the woman who was super speeding and killed two on Canal Street.
The driver had drugs, guns in the car which was classified as stolen.
Most seriously she had a pending criminal case from April when she crashed and injured a pedestrian.
SOUND CAMERAS!!!
Yes, please. Wasn’t this in the works?
How about bike stop light camara at the entrance to Pier 40! Hardly any bikers, especially the delivery bikes, pay any attention to the bike lane stop lights there.
Drivers who support this city by paying for parking, tolls, gas, inspection, licenses, registration and insurance are not allowed to make right, left or u-turns, YET people on bikes are allowed to do those things AND go through stop signs, red lights and go past the speed limits without being ticketed. I miss my city.
Please, let me shed a tear for the poor driver who can’t make u-turns or speed. Yeah cyclists don’t pay any taxes at all. I don’t drive in this city and I’m sure I’ve paid more taxes than you over time. Grow up.
Cars are not allowed to make right and left turns?
We can consistently be for:
– stricter traffic enforcement against cars
– stricter traffic enforcement against bicycles
It’s not either/or. It’s both-and.
Cyclists must obey the same rules of the road as car drivers, but for all practical purposes the rules are unenforceable. The offenders simply whiz off and disappear, with no fear of apprehension. This impunity has developed because there is currently no way for police or pedestrians to quickly identify and record the free-wheeling offenders.
Solution: Bikers should be required to wear light-weight reflective vest bibs, with 6-inch numbers front and back, like the ones worn by marathoners. Purchased in bulk, they would cost only a few dollars apiece. The City should require all cyclists 18 and older to register with a simple government-issued photo i.d., and give the bibs to cyclists free of charge. Cyclists who ride without registered bibs would face impoundment of their bikes, parallel to what happens to motor vehicles when drivers are unable to produce license, registration or insurance cards.
Actually, bikers can cross the intersection when pedestrians get the “walk” sign.
Yes, we should make all cyclists or people of a specific class wear identifying badges. Throughout history this has proven itself to be an effective solution… please think before you speak… deep sigh….
The city needs to install a red light camera where 6th Ave crosses West Broadway at Lispenard- pretty much ever time I am at that intersection, I see vehicles, including MTA busses, running the red light, often at a fast rate of speed. Several times I have almost been hit, so now even when my light is green, I wait to make sure drivers look like they will actually be stopping before I attempt to cross West Broadway.