How NY can save hundreds of lives, with traffic safety cameras
Cars kill almost as many New Yorkers as murderers do. Embracing well-tested technology can end the carnage.
In New York City in 2024 there were 7 deaths in vehicle collisions for every 10 murders. Yet while many politicians posture about being "tough on crime", few talk about the risk that dangerous driving poses with the urgency these numbers deserve.
Vehicle crashes are one of the biggest threats to New Yorkers’ lives. In 2024, New York City endured 266 deaths and 54,137 injuries related to automobile crashes, almost all caused by dangerous driving.1
Traffic police aren’t enough to make New York’s drivers clean up their acts. But there are well-tested technological solutions: expanding the use of traffic safety cameras to fine careless drivers and encourage safer behavior behind the wheel.
The danger on our roads: vehicles
The numbers are clear. Over half of New York’s fatalities from vehicle crashes were pedestrians or cyclists, while 43% were drivers or passengers in a motor vehicle.
This is a huge death toll. To put those numbers in perspective, in all of 2024 New York City suffered 382 murders — or 70% as many deaths in car crashes as there were murders.2
Drivers are overwhelmingly at fault for these crashes. Motorist inattention, error, or impairment was listed by the NYPD as the primary cause of 89% of these pedestrian or cyclist fatalities and 94% of their injuries.3
Deterring dangerous driving
Although research shows that the “certainty of being caught” is key to stopping crime, New York’s drivers know that most rule-breaking goes unpunished. Unless a police officer personally witnesses an incident, motorists generally face no penalties for speeding, red-light running, failing to yield, or maneuvering carelessly. Traffic police can’t be everywhere, so scofflaws proceed unchallenged.
That’s where technology can come in: using traffic safety cameras, it actually is possible to monitor thousands of New York’s intersections, avenues, and highways simultaneously. Whenever dangerous driving is noticed, the Department of Transportation can send the vehicle owner a fine.
If we cover enough intersections with traffic safety cameras, then we can change driver behavior by making motorists believe they actually will face a penalty for driving dangerously.
New York already uses automatic traffic cameras
Over the years, New York has taken “baby steps” towards using cameras to automatically penalize dangerous driving.
New York City already has 2,200 speed cameras and 236 intersections have red light cameras.4 These cameras monitor for drivers who exceed the speed limit or blast through a red light. When they detect a dangerous driver, the Department of Transportation issues the vehicle owner a $50 fine through the mail.
In recent years, New York’s buses have also increasingly been equipped with cameras that automatically issue fines to vehicles that block bus lanes, bus stops, and bike lanes along the bus’s path. Around a fifth of the MTA’s buses have this technology, which issues fines that start at $50 and escalate to $250 for repeat violators.
These automatic cameras have been remarkably effective. In locations with speed cameras, rates of speeding have dropped by 94% since these cameras were first introduced in 2014.5 Similarly, at intersections with red light cameras, the rate of red light violations has declined by 73% since the cameras were first introduced in 1994.6 The MTA reports that on bus routes with automatic cameras, bus speeds have increased by 5% and collisions have reduced by 20%.7
Upping the ante with automatic traffic safety cameras
While New York’s existing systems of traffic cameras have been a big success, the bad news is that state law places major restrictions on New York City’s use of cameras to deter dangerous drivers:
Limited coverage: At any time, at most 600 of New York City’s 13,000 intersections can be monitored by red light cameras. Speed cameras are only allowed within a quarter mile of a school. This leaves many parts of the city unprotected.
Lax standards: New York’s speed cameras only issue fines to vehicles that exceed the speed limit by more than 10 miles per hour. With the citywide speed limit of 25 mph, that means the cameras actually allow driving 40% faster than the speed limit in most areas.
Few laws enforced: Big categories of unsafe driving — such as failing to yield to pedestrians, turning recklessly, and blocking intersections after the traffic signal turns red — aren’t accounted for in the current automated enforcement systems.
These restrictions are legal limitations, not technical constraints. If our politicians wanted to, we could roll out traffic safety cameras at every major intersection in New York. And these cameras at intersections and on buses could track all types of dangerous driving, not just red light running and speeding, and bus-blocking. Recent advances in artificial intelligence and camera quality have now unlocked the technical ability to reprimand drivers who break any traffic safety law, without needing police involvement.
The politics of safer streets
The politics of New York City’s traffic safety are tough, though. The city relies on powers under state law to operate traffic safety cameras — which means that state legislators far beyond the city’s borders get a say about how we keep our streets safe.
Most state legislators who represent New York City and urban areas upstate are strong supporters of traffic safety cameras, while lawmakers representing suburban Long Island and upstate rural districts are opponents.
This was evident during recent votes to increase the number of red light cameras and reauthorize speed cameras in New York City. The original attempt to increase the red light camera cap from 150 to 1,350 intersections failed. Ultimately legislators compromised to allow the city to operate red light cameras at 600 intersections.
Opponents of traffic safety cameras argue, in essence, that they want drivers to be able to drive quickly and not face penalties. They complain about the burden of fines, while ignoring that only speeders and red light runners have to pay these costs.
My hope is that traffic safety cameras can win over opponents by anchoring in the facts: deaths and injuries from vehicle crashes are a big deal, and New York City’s experience shows they can reliably be prevented using traffic safety cameras. Those saved lives and eliminated injuries are worth far more than dangerous drivers reaching their destinations several minutes faster.
We have the technology to effectively discourage dangerous driving — if we can persuade legislators across the state to allow New York City to embrace these lifesaving approaches.
My analysis of the NYPD’s “Motor Vehicle Collisions - Crashes” dataset, published on the NYC OpenData portal
Archived CompStat data from the NYPD on murders in 2024
My analysis of the NYPD’s “Motor Vehicle Collisions - Crashes” dataset, published on the NYC OpenData portal. Some crashes don’t list a primary cause, so these are excluded.
The NYC Department of Transportation’s annual reports on the speed camera program and red light camera program.
NYC DOT speed camera annual report
NYC DOT red light camera annual report
Cars kill, but to the general public there’s way more frequent and scary interactions with bikes than cars. Whatever movement there is for safer streets is too loaded up with bike fanatics to acknowledge that decades of baroque street design to support lightly used bike lanes, and virtually no enforcement of any kind of rules, has made this city much more hostile to pedestrians.
I fully support traffic cams for cars and think it will save lives, but bikes also need to be WAY more restricted before it will feel like there’s any peace for pedestrians.