Comments on: Ray Kelly on Traffic Crime: “I Don’t Know What You’re Talking About”

By: J. Mork

J. Mork — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:45:17 +0000

There are two sets of x-axis labels. Speeding tickets (in red) are on the left and fatalities, in blue, are on the right.

By: Jinx

Jinx — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:53:24 +0000

Is it me or is this graph terrible? Its not plotted on any sort of scale is it?

By: terry

terry — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:36:27 +0000

Perhaps this has a lot to do with the decline in ticket numbers
NYPD staffing
2001 39,761
2002 37,988
2003 36,700
2004 36,021
2005 36,141
2006 36,141
2007 35,907
2008 35,945
2009 35,925

By: Larry Littlefield

Larry Littlefield — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:53:16 +0000

My first thought looking at that chart is that summonses went down as tax revenue went up. Which means that as tax revenues go down, summonses may be expected to go up again.

My second was that once the public employee unions got their big 2000 pension enhancement, and then paid for the part of it not funded by higher taxes with lower pay for new hires, the police cut back on the amount of work they were willing to do. The winners moved to Florida, the losers engaged in a permanent slowdown strike. Expect a lot more of that.

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:30:16 +0000

Anyone who wants a ground-level view of the NYPD’s traffic enforcement priorities should spend a few hours in traffic court, as I have recently been forced to do. Based on my small sample, the number one threat to public safety on our streets appears to be driving without a seatbelt, distantly followed by operating a cell phone while driving. Out of about 25 cases, there was one for failure to come to a complete stop at a stop sign, one for failure to yield. No speeding, no red light running, no U-turning, no weaving recklessly in traffic. And the alleged perps? Nearly all were people of color, and if they were white, they were nearly always young. Not one Navigator-driving white “professional” in the bunch. (Except, of course, the middle aged white guy charged with failure to use a bike lane when one is provided.) Just a collection of unlucky working class men and women who looked like they could ill afford a $40 ticket plus the state’s $85 surcharge.

By: Mark Walker

Mark Walker — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:19:01 +0000

This explains a lot. I always thought Kelly and Bloomberg were at least well intentioned on these issues. Guess I was wrong. Here’s an issue for the Democrats running for mayor.

By: Andy B from Jersey

Andy B from Jersey — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:02:08 +0000

Uhhhh….

Does anyone have the raw numbers for how many total summonses were issued during the study time? It might be in the report but I’m too lazy to look.

This way you could say, “Duh, Commish Kelly! Yeah you wrote 1.2 million in 2007 but (maybe) you wrote 1.5 in 2001!”

By: JK

JK — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:38:02 +0000

T.A.’s Speeder City, 1993, and Speeder City 2 1997 found that roughly one in five speeding tickets were given on city streets versus highways. In 1993 it was 35 speeding tickets a day on streets, in ’97 only 44. That number is so low that effectively there is no speeding enforcement on city streets. Maybe TA can do some follow-up on “Exec Order” and update these numbers. Odds are they haven’t changed, per Anon above. However, Exec Order doesnt differentiate between speeding tickets on streets and highways, which means it significantly overstates the chance of getting a speeding ticket on a city street.(!It’s even less than once in 35 years!) Another thing to consider is that since pedestrians and cyclists are struck on city streets, not highways, the continued absence of speed enforcement probably hasn’t had an effect on changes in ped/bike injury rates. Exec Order cites an increase in speed related crashes, but those are all crashes, not bike/ped crashes. The silver lining here is that any real police speed enforcement on city streets would probably have a big effect on pedestrians and cycling injuries and deaths.

By: Pursuant

Pursuant — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:23:05 +0000

Why isn’t the data for 2007 on the graph?

By: Anon

Anon — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:04:32 +0000

The problem is where and how for NYPD to enforce speeds. It would be hard for a cop car to hide on a city street, waiting for speeders, like they do on the highway. And we don’t want them chasing speeders to pull them over, do we?

So real the answer may be lots and lots of speed cameras, which requires Albany legislation.

By: Grinner

Grinner — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:39:56 +0000

I know that this is slightly tangential, and very much only seeing trees, not the forest, but wasn’t there a big mobile phone ticketting blitz in 2007? I’d not be the least bit surprised if half of the mobile phone summonses were issued in one month — sort of like the riding without a bell tickets that are only issued two weeks each year, unless the cyclist is lying crumbled on the side of the road, waiting for an ambulance.

Less tangentially, i wonder how many of those 1.2 million moving violation summonses were issued in the spirit of keeping traffic moving, rather than in the interest of public safety. For example, i wonder what percentage of them were “spillback” tickets issued in a “blocking the box” blitz.