The NYPD says it will start a three-week citywide effort on Monday June 16, to crack down on bad driving. They’ll be handing out tickets for “hazardous driving behaviors such as speeding, passing through red lights, driving while using a cellphone, driving while texting, making improper turns, disobeying traffic signs, and failing to yield to pedestrians,” Gothamist reports.
“The traffic safety operation will focus on the most problematic intersections around the city and take place during all hours of the day.”
The NYPD has already conducted a couple of shorter ticket blitzes earlier in the year. Last we checked, however, the number of tickets given out on the Upper West Side for speeding and failure to yield had not risen much from the previous year.
Photo by Aaron H.
I guess I’m a little confused here- what exactly are traffic police doing now if they’re not already passing out tickets for such violations? Isn’t this what they’re doing already?
How about turning without signaling? Pick any corner on West End Avenue for that one.
Even better — turning without signaling *while* yacking on a cell phone. That one alone will cure diBlasio’s “structural deficit” in three weeks.
On Monday June 16th I was crossing W. 88th and Broadway and was nearly run over by a driver who turned left even thought the light had turned red already. Guess the cops aren’t up here ! Really, it’s such nonsense. It happens all the time, everywhere, and a 3 week blitz is not going to solve the problem of inadequate traffic policing. Let’s have the list of those “most problematic intersections.”
You are absolutely right — speeding left turns from WEA onto 86th and 96th are the biggest dangers in the neighborhood. They go through red lights right into the crosswalks while accelerating.
The police do nothing about the illegal driving that goes on in this city. Just this morning a car with PA license plates passed a red light on 98th & Broadway. I yelled it was a red light. They told me to go F myself. A cop stood by and looked at me as if was the culprit. On 97th and Broadway a woman driver from NJ pushed people out of her way to make a turn onto 97th to get to a red light. The same cop stood there. The police are doing nothing.
Exactly the problem. No enforcement of moving violations — whether the ones that cause accidents or those that completely block traffic in midtown.
Apparently police dept doesn’t want to allocate officer time to going to court when tickets are contested, and traffic police are not authorized to deal with moving violations, just parking violations.
If my information is correct, then it’s a political issue (perhaps a police union issue?) and a conscious decision not to step up enforcement — would love to see an accurate analysis of why this is and how it could be remedied.
I would be really interesting to know what our valiant police force do when not policing rogue drivers for three weeks out of the year?
while they’re at it – can we do something about chinese deliverymen on powered bikes cutting through crosswalks and crusing on the wrong side of the street
This is absolute nonsense, the officers are apathetic to the problems and the greatest concerns are still being ignored.
Yesterday morning 2 officers were “directing” traffic at the corner of 65th and Columbus, already identified as a dangerous intersection. I witnessed 3 cars over the crosswalk when the light changed, another going directly through the light to turn left onto 65th with absolutely no regard for pedestrians. The officer didn’t budge. I had no idea about this “crackdown” but when I passed one of them while crossing the street I said “It might help if you actually ticketed the cars going through the light.” In this particular area it doesn’t help any that the street construction at 64th/9th Avenue/Broadway has apparently had plenty of incentive to never end, causing backups in 5 directions. That said, a fleeting attempt to enforce laws at this and other areas is useless – there need to be stricter laws and punishments, better enforcement, appropriate signaling, fewer ill-conceived patterns, enhanced signage and street markings throughout, and stepped-up testing of taxi drivers who apparently are unable to understand basic traffic laws (like you can’t make a full left turn across Broadway just because your north- or south-bound light is green).
When yet another pedestrian is killed the administration might be able to say “we tried,” but not developing a sustainable solution is hardly an acceptable strategy.
You all would have been as pleased as I was if you would have witnessed what I did at 80th and WEA this AM. Lady cop pulls over female NJ driver, I can’t hear what driver says but cop says ‘you were on your cell phone’. Driver must have given some bs about what a great driver she is and cop yells at her ‘you didn’t even see that you almost hit a car. Good work NYPD.