June 20, 2012: NY Times: With Speed-Camera Bill, More Writing of Tickets May Be Going Hands-Free
- Under a proposal now gaining traction in Albany New Yorkers may soon be answering to an authority more suited to the city’s topography: cameras that record the speed of a passing car and issue violations automatically.
Though similar programs have already been put into effect for red-light and bus-lane violations in the city, the bill could signal a sweeping shift for drivers accustomed to a city whose traffic laws can be hard to enforce, cutting against an ethos of getting from here to there as quickly as possible.
Louisiana, Ohio and Oregon are among the states to put speed camera initiatives into effect in recent years.
Proponents say the math is simple:- Scores of New Yorkers are killed each year in speeding-related crashes, and the use of cameras has already proved effective in other cities. Since speed cameras were installed in Washington in 2001, the police said traffic fatalities had fallen 56 percent, though it was unclear how much of the shift was attributable to the cameras. (In New York City, there were 243 traffic fatalities in 2011, about a 38 percent reduction from 2001.)