NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — New York City is lowering speed limits and adding more speed cameras in response to a rise in traffic deaths since the start of the pandemic.
As WCBS 880's Steve Burns reported, traffic was way down in the city during the coronavirus shutdown, but empty streets were a feast for speeders.
"Speed camera violations actually went up," Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said Tuesday.
In turn, deaths on city streets have also gone up. Already this year there have been more drivers, passengers, and motorcyclists killed on city streets than in all of last year.
"It's not complicated, the main reason has been speeding," Trottenberg said.
The city is looking to address the rise in fatalities by reducing the speed limit to 25 miles per hour on nine major arteries across the five boroughs, covering more than 25 miles citywide, that have the highest rates of crashes.
The locations are:
Those new speed limits will be enforced with the help of speed cameras.
"To date we now have 950 speed cameras active citywide and we will hit our goal of 2,000 by 2021," Trottenberg said. "We've exceeded the pledge of installing speed cameras in all 750 school zones."
Trottenberg said they're seeing a 70 percent reduction in speeding where cameras have been placed.
The NYPD will also focus its traffic enforcement efforts on areas with a large number of speed violations.