State legislators are expected to pass a dramatic expansion of red light cameras at New York City intersections, but a separate bill to automatically ticket cars that block street sweepers will not get a vote, officials in Albany confirmed on Friday.
Advocates had long pushed for legislation raising the cap on cameras, which limited them to only 150 intersections. The state Assembly is anticipated to vote in favor of quadrupling the cap to 600 intersections late on Friday, according to Michael Whyland, a spokesperson for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.
Whyland also confirmed that a separate bill to equip street sweepers with cameras that fine drivers who ignore alternate-side parking rules will not get a vote this session.
Heastie controls which legislation comes to a vote in the Assembly. The mixed bag of traffic enforcement measures comes after Gov. Kathy Hochul halted implementation of congestion pricing, handing a gift to drivers and outraging street safety advocates.
Red light cameras have proven to prevent drivers from running reds. City data shows that intersections monitored by the cameras have seen 73% fewer violations since the first devices were installed in 1994.
“People shouldn’t run red lights, and hopefully with more red light cameras people will train themselves to be more careful and not to run red lights, because when they do that they endanger other people’s lives, and people have died,” said Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz of the Bronx.
Whyland did not say why the street sweeper legislation, which passed the state Senate, would not get a vote in the Assembly. New York City Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch had advocated for that measure. A spokesperson for the sanitation department did not comment on the bill’s failure. The Legislature’s next regular session is in January.
Last month, the city sanitation department handled more than 600 complaints submitted via 311 about local streets not being cleaned properly during alternate-side parking hours, according to city data. Last year, there were 8,955 complaints about street sweepers not properly cleaning city streets.
