CBS2 Exclusive: Technology Credited With Big Increase In NYC Speeding Tickets
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Drivers in New York City are speeding into ticket trouble in record numbers.
As CBS2's Tony Aiello reported exclusively Wednesday, summonses for speeding are way up. Aiello went behind the scenes at the NYPD to demonstrate why.
Ever since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office, the city has gotten dramatically tougher on speeders. A typical speeding summons will cost a motorist $150 as well as court costs – and officials said the goal is not to raise revenue, but to save lives.
Technology Credited With Big Increase In NYC Speeding Tickets
So far this year, the NYPD has written 42,191 summonses for speeding – a 21 percent increase over the same period last year, and a huge 32 percent increase over 2013.
At the police driver testing facility at Floyd Bennett Field, Aiello found out why. He got to try out a Lidar laser speed gun.
In the last 18 months, the NYPD has purchased more than 300 of the speed guns, and has trained 1,000 officers on how to use them.
"The way to get people to slow down, it turns out, is by strict, rigid enforcement of speed laws," said NYPD Highway Patrol Training Officer Dan Maher.
Maher said the Lidar guns are much more precise than traditional radar.
"So you can lay it right onto a person's license plate," he said.
That ability is key, because the number of precinct officers trained to use the Lidar guns on local crowded streets has increased fivefold, under Mayor Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero initiative that dropped the speed limit from 30 to 25 mph.
"Highway Patrol officers always did speed enforcement. However, precincts did not always focus as much on it," said Highway Patrol Deputy Inspector Michael Ameri. "Now, they're getting the resources, the training, and the equipment to do so."
Between hundreds more speed guns and an ever increasing number of speed cameras near schools, the city is an increasingly risky place to indulge your need for speed.
The speed enforcement is just one facet of the Vision Zero traffic safety initiative, and officials said it is already making progress in saving lives. There have been 59 traffic fatalities so this year versus 72 for the same period last year – a 20 percent drop.
