A small group of reckless drivers are terrorizing the city’s streets, contributing to an increasingly dangerous environment for pedestrians, according to new analysis of city speed camera data by street safety groups Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets.
At least 132 vehicles received 100 or more speed safety camera tickets in 2024, or about two tickets every week. Two of those vehicles received more than 500 tickets, with one driver receiving a whopping 562 tickets in 2024 — or one every 16 hours for the entire year, the report found. Drivers are ticketed when a camera catches them zipping at least 10 mph over the limit.
The findings come as New York City became deadlier for those navigating its streets by foot, with traffic violence killing children in alarmingly high numbers last year, the report found. Traffic crashes killed 120 pedestrians last year, a 15% uptick from the 103 people who were killed in 2023 (a historically low year). Overall, traffic fatalities dipped to 252 in 2024, from 265 in 2023.
The situation was especially grim for young children and teens, with 16 deaths. In fact, more young people have died in the last three years than any other three year period since the Vision Zero initiative to eradicate traffic deaths began over a decade ago, the report shows.
Why certain traffic deaths are on the rise doesn’t come with a tidy answer. Instead, it’s likely a mix of factors, including that more vehicles are on the road than before the Covid-19 pandemic, and that they tend to be taller and heavier, increasing the risks to those who are struck. It also hasn’t helped that the Adams administration is way behind on its mandates to implement record numbers of street safety enhancements and launch protected bus and bike lanes.
“An important thing to remember for all street safety stuff is that it’s not a zero sum game,” said Alexa Sledge, an advocate with Transportation Alternatives. “If you put a protected bike lane on a road that doesn’t have one, that road is safer whether you’re riding a bike, walking or in a car.”
The troubling figures come as the city’s Department of Transportation has launched new youth safety measures, including more open streets near schools and beginning to reduce speed limits on select streets near schools. Even with the pedestrian deaths uptick, the city has had impressive results with its speed cameras. Speeding – a leading cause of pedestrian fatalities – has dropped on average 94% at the more than 2,200 locations where there are cameras.
In the last five months of last year, the number of speed safety camera violations fell by 30% compared to the same period in 2022 — when speed cameras first went 24/7, the report found. That’s actually not a bad thing because it suggests the threat of being fined has discouraged speeding and reduced tickets, said Sledge. The program raked in nearly $310 million in fines from more than 5.9 million speed camera notices in 2023, according to city data.
“Part of this is just driver behavior,” said Tiffany-Ann Taylor, vice president for transportation at the Regional Plan Association and a former DOT official. “You can’t design your way out of bad driver behavior, quite honestly, and so enforcement has to be conducted in an equitable way.”
The city’s DOT has pushed for new tools to curb recidivist speeders, including the idea of authorizing the DMV to suspend the registrations for vehicles that get five or more red light camera violations in a 12-month period.
Another approach, which the report supports, is passing a bill in the State Legislature, sponsored by Brooklyn State Senator Andrew Gounardes, that would force drivers who get six or more speeding tickets a year to install a speed limiter on their car that would prevent them from driving faster than five miles over the speed limit.
