By Gus Saltonstall
Over the past year and a half, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced that Automated Camera Enforcement, which is a system that takes photos of and mails out tickets to the owners of vehicles that are blocking bus stops or illegally parked in bus routes, has been added to four Upper West Side bus routes.
On Monday, the MTA announced another bus that services the neighborhood will also soon add the technology.
The M57.
The M57 travels across town from East 55th Street and First Avenue to West 72nd Street and Broadway, including Upper West Side stops on 72nd Street and West End Avenue, 69th Street and West End Avenue, 66th Street and West End Avenue, 64th Street and West End Avenue, 61st Street and West End Avenue, and 59th Street and West End Avenue.
The 60-day warning period for the new technology on the M57 will begin on December 8, during which vehicles improperly using the busway will receive warning notices in the mail. After the two months are up, summonses will begin at $50 and escalate to $250 for repeat violators.
The four Upper West Side buses that already have the technology are the M79, the M86, the M96, and the M116.
The MTA states that when enforcement cameras are activated, bus lane speeds increase by 5 percent, with a 20 percent reduction in collisions. Additionally, the agency says that just 9 percent of drivers commit a second bus-lane violation after being fined once.
You can find out more information — HERE.
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Fantastic! More camera enforcement please, there is no reason every light shouldn’t have red light and speed cameras – the number of drivers I see blowing through red lights well after it has gone from yellow to red is dangerous and unacceptable and NYPD does nothing to enforce it.
Actually in my experience it is bicyclists (not drivers) who routinely blow red lights especially Citibike.
In October I was hit by a bicycle who went through a red light. There were virtually no cars on the street.
Yes enforcement of running red lights in general is lacking.
I am glad you were not killed by this cyclist. Since cars are heavier and moving faster than bikes, drivers kill and injure more people as a matter of physics.
Bikers are blameless according to urbanists!
I walk, I ride bikes, and I drive my car.
And it’s obvious to me in all those capacities that we need ubiquitous enforcement.
There’s no more need to throw the bike issue into a discussion of drivers mucking things up than there is to respond to an article about out of control e-bikes with ‘what about cars?’
To say that the NYPD does nothing is an exaggeration. They may not do enough, but hyperbole does little to advance a realistic argument.
I have watched drivers run red lights directly in front of NYPD traffic enforcement officers who just shrug. IF they were serious about doing their jobs there is plenty of low hanging fruit.
On the bright side, traffic enforcement does seem to have improved under Commissioner Tisch but red light cameras would be the best and most consistent way to enforce these traffic violations.
Traffic agents aren’t empowered to write moving violations.
So then it is accurate that NYPD does nothing about it?
All the more reason for more red light cameras.
okay they do nothing meaningful or of value. they do park illegally and obscure their own plates or have illegal tinted windows and are some the worst offenders. you’re right, they definitely do something.
Walk by a precinct and take a look at the license plates of the cars with cop decals on them.
ITA. Also Priscilla’s Law to get liscence plates on bikes and thd cameras can catch thrm too
stop trying to make Pricilla’s law a thing. its evsa nonsense
What is your objection to requiring liscence plates on bikes?
Sure! Add elevated cross walks to act as speed bumps too while we are dreaming.
Interestingly CIty DOT has been extending bus stop lines and sign-poles, even far from bus shelters.
Some bus stop lines now go beyond entrances to neighboring buildings even though clearly that is not where people wait or the bus pulls in.
Some go beyond service-trash entrances.
So in these situations, any vehicle standing or doing pick-up/drop-off in front of a building is now at a “bus stop”.
Access a Ride, service/commercial, resident vehicle etc.
For example, the bus stop on the SW corner of West End and 72nds Street.
The yellow line has been extended and bus stop sign pole has been moved mid block beyond the entrance and service entrance.
BTW if someone stood at the new pole-sign, they’d miss the bus.)
A small, but important clarification to your comment… quick pick up/drop offs are not affected. Tickets are only issued once a vehicle is recorded by 2 different buses at least 5 minutes apart, which is typically enough time for a drop off. If a vehicle is stationary in a bus lane for more than 5 minutes, it is considered to be parked and a ticket is issued. On most bus routes, buses are spaced more than 5 minutes apart which makes the grace period even longer, especially in the overnight hours. (If a bus route does not have a dedicated bus lane, but the bus is being blocked by an illegally parked or standing vehicle, the grace period is 2.5 minutes before a ticket is issued.) I think West Side Rag should have explained this in the article as it’s an important detail.
This still makes it difficult for people who have to do more than a pick up and drop off. For example if you have bags and children you need to get up to the apartment.
Interesting.
Traffic Enforcement agents can still issue tickets for any vehicle at a marked bus stop without a grace period – is that accurate?
Only if there is no driver in the vehicle. If there is a driver, the agent will ask them to move. If they don’t, then they get a ticket.
Bus stop referenced is in front of 255 West End Ave.
Bus stop extension is visible on Google Map also
Excellent, the more enforcement the better.
I agree. While we’re at it install cameras inside the busses and send tickets to all the deadbeats who avoid paying business fare!
While this may be a general problem, blocking “the box,” or the intersection, feels like a much bigger issue and is much closer to the root cause of perennially slow traffic patterns in the city. This issue is caused not only by careless and selfish drivers but, many times, by MTA buses themselves.
All parties need to come to the table and respect the rules if we truly want to address this problem. Can we fine MTA buses?
96th Street especially at Amsterdam and Broadway has gotten insane with that since the bus lane was put in. Causes way more of a safety hazard for pedestrians and drivers.
How about facial recognition for the people who don’t pay the bus fare !
yeah! let’s install Gov’t ID microchips in every citizen too!
Wait..? Aren’t we getting free buses soon?
and puppies and unicorns!
Rob k,
because that would mean facial recognition of everyone on the bus, which is certainly something “they” are considering, and it wouldn’t stop with buses.
its already happening. the NYPD is collecting that data.
Cars parked in the 79th Street bus lane today had their rear licenses plates illegally obscured. I noticed 8 of them.
Can the 20th Precinct do *basic* police work here? Obscuring plates and parking in illegal zones is really, REALLY rudimentary stuff out there
If it is 81st, it is the construction crew for making the subway station accessible.
Facial recognition for NYC is already prevalent
Also some stores have a policy similar to below, that may resell it.
“We may provide and receive information inferred or derived about you, with or from our service providers and vendors. voice recordings, facial recognition. We may sell your biometric personal information.”
So NYC could buy data from stores to use and compare it against a fare beaters, etc.
There is a bill in the city council that would regulate *precisely this*. Which it should. That sort of mass surveillance is extremely dangerous
Yes bills 217 and 425 for businesses and landlords. The biometric market is already a multi-billion market.. I believe there was a modification done to the bills not realizing that businesses especially were selling datasets.
casinos have been using the technology since the 90s. they all share through their venders these datasets.
MSG has used it for several years,
Another thing to review, your terms of service before you accept it.
Macys has Notice of Privacy Practices where they informed of re-selling biometric data
Lawsuits have come still they have that disclosure in their Nov 2025 policy.,
In what store did you see this notice? I was unware this was happening.
fairway uses this
Alice that one is from Macys notices November 2025
They are not the only store doing this.
This is a welcome development. I recently road the M57 from Broadway to First Ave. It took at least 30 minutes. Although there is a designated bus lane, we were almost never in it, so clogged it as with other vehicles, most of them just standing still.
Next the 104?
What’s really a problem on Broadway is double and triple parked vehicles. So there’s often just one travel lane, and buses are forced to muscle themselves out into it past the blocking vehicles every time they leave a stop. Many times, drivers don’t even try to clear a lane when they stand waiting for a fare or whatever: they block TWO lanes.
I’d like to see traffic enforcement cruising up and down Broadway all day, forcing standing vehicles to move and ticketing double parkers.
Much worse on Columbus & Amsterdam!
Yes if NYPD traffic enforcement were serious about doing their jobs, they would be doing this low hanging fruit type of stuff
They should have technology that disables people’s phones when they play obnoxious videos on the bus.
a few months ago, after 50 yrs of living on W 80/RSD i moved to WEA/62 St and discovered the M57 which could be such a good bus if its route were less hectic .. its worse then the way the M104 was before it had more buses added .. without the M57 this valley on WEA would be even less of a neighborhood – there’s no bank ..
I don’t know if this will work
Last week I took an M96 bus from Bway to 1st avenue, and the entire bus lane (the red thing) wasblocked by cars and trucks until we reached 3rd avenue.
Did they all get tickets? Will they now change their ways?
I’ve been calling for this on ALL buses since the rise of the cell phone camera 📸