NYC's Speed Cameras Will Soon Be Turned On Every Weekday

NEW YORK — New York City's drivers will soon be five times as likely to get a ticket if they speed through a school zone thanks to a new state law.

The city plans to install new cameras to catch speeding drivers in a total of 750 school zones by next year, quintupling the reach of the speed-camera program, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law on May 12 to grow the program, which previously allowed cameras in just 140 school zones. The law will also allow the city to keep the cameras on weekdays year-round when it takes effect July 11 instead of just when school is in session, city officials said.

The program's dramatic expansion will start less than a year after state lawmakers allowed it to briefly lapse last summer. City officials say it has brought down fatalities and speeding near schools.

"We don’t want to give tickets if we don’t have to," de Blasio said at a Friday news conference on the Upper West Side. "We just want people to stop speeding, particularly where kids are going to school."

Drivers whom the cameras catch going more than 10 MPH over the speed limit can get slapped with a $50 fine. The new state law allows the city to use them from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on every weekday, which the mayor's office says will double the number of hours that they are active.

The city Department of Transportation plans to install about 2,000 speed cameras at a pace of about 40 per month through this year and about 60 per month in 2020, officials said.

The maximum 750 school zones will have cameras by June of next year, the mayor's office said. There are currently cameras in 180 to 200 zones under a law the City Council passed last year to revive and expand the program, according to Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg.

"I think it's a pretty aggressive schedule that the mayor has tasked us with," Trottenberg said.

The DOT plans to inform drivers about the changes to the program through mailings, online ads, notices in newspapers and displays on LinkNYC kiosks, along with drive-time radio ads, the mayor's office said.

De Blasio called for state lawmakers to take further action against drivers who repeatedly blow past schools. Trottenberg mentioned Dorothy Bruns, a driver with four speeding-in-school-zone violations who hit and killed two children in Park Slope last year.

Drivers should face higher fines if they consistently speed and the "worst offenders" should have their licenses suspended, the Democratic mayor said.

"This is about protecting kids, protecting families, protecting seniors. A multiple offender needs to feel the consequences," de Blasio said.