In my dreamworld every driver obeys the speed limits, makes proper turns from the proper lanes with the proper signals. No one runs red lights. Ahh, if I ruled the world....
It seems that some hayseed State representative from freakin' Rochester of all places gets to decide how many traffic cameras New York City is to have and this rightly peeves the Times' editorialist. It peeves me too.
But I have a problem with this editorial. Here:
"With cuts in traffic policing over the last decade, these cameras could fill in enforcement gaps. And they would save lives and money."
WTF! t
There aren't enough damned cops in this city? Are you serious ?? We have more cops, not to mention civilian employees of the NYPD (total around 55,000) than all the people who live in the city of Hoboken! Children included! And Hoboken is a square mile large!
I know that at night most of the cops on patrol are safely ensconced in their patrol cars, windows shut tight to keep out noises as they sleep in their special little corners. They do keep their radios on in case they get called to something that has already happened, and sometimes they do work at night at silly ticket traps, but not at chasing down reckless drivers.
That's a problem that is not the fault of anyone from Rochester.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/opinion/more-cameras-for-new-york-city-streets.html?_r=0
EDITORIAL
More Cameras for New York City Streets
Published: March 1, 2013
The Bloomberg administration has been working to combat a deadly problem in New York City: drivers who speed or run through red lights.
Connect With Us on Twitter
For Op-Ed, follow@nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow@andyrNYT.
What the city needs is what many other cities have: street cameras to catch drivers breaking the traffic laws. The administration has been pushing for more cameras at stoplights for years, and the transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, also wants a new batch of “speed” cameras that catch drivers ignoring the city’s normal speed limit of 30 miles per hour.
But decisions about traffic cameras in the city must be approved by the State Legislature. That’s ridiculous, of course, especially since the lawmaker who usually blocks more traffic cameras, Assemblyman David Gantt, is from Rochester. Mr. Gantt, the chairman of the Assembly’s transportation committee, should not have control over the city’s public safety measures. New York City has 12,000 intersections with traffic lights, but the state has allowed the city to put up only 150 cameras to take photos of the license plates of cars illegally running through lights. City officials report that when a camera goes up, violations go down.
Late last year, 21 members of New York’s City Council and a number of city health advocates and good-government groups appealed to state lawmakers to allow more cameras to make the streets safer. With cuts in traffic policing over the last decade, these cameras could fill in enforcement gaps. And they would save lives and money.
In 2011, 143 pedestrians were killed and more than 10,000 injured in traffic accidents on city streets. It is imperative that New York be allowed to use effective ways to enforce its speed limits and traffic rules.
