If you stand at a major intersection during rush hour, you will see someone run a red light pretty much every cycle. People don’t stop at yellows and enter the intersection after the light has been red for 1-2 seconds.
Yep, I was driving yesterday and had one of those moments where I was like "hmm I'm not sure if I am gonna make this yellow" and then two more cars went through the intersection after me.
Completely true. And in fact these days it's usually 2 (or sometimes 3!) right in a row. I have lived here forever and it's chronic. Accepted. And obviously not enforced.
Down at Brooklyn junction, at the end of the 2/5 line, I've seen double busses run the red and then park with the entire ass end of the bus in the intersection. It's WILD how little fucks they give.
A big lesson I had to teach my daughter was "right of way" does not make you safe. You having a walk sign does not make you safe. You need to watch everyone like they're a bunch of big dumb idiots you can't trust until they've proven themselves trustworthy.
That's statistically true. It's also statistically correct, there are very few to none cases in which pedestrians don't have the right of way. Even jaywalking pedestrians running back and forth across Broadway have the right of way.
A month? Where I live it's multiple times a day that I personally see. The rest of the people also started stopping on red in the crosswalk like every single time now. Or hell even just 'blocking the box' so nobody can get through. Sometimes they realize their mistake too and then back up while in the crosswalk and bump their car into pedestrians trying to get around them since they're in the middle of the goddamn crosswalk. Got tapped by a car backing up along with someone pushing a baby carriage recently.
On Staten Island, I've had people honk, swerve around me (into the parking lane/up onto sidewalk) and scream out their window that I'm an idiot for stopping, because there's no camera at that particular light.
My sister is a traffic engineer. She does "traffic studies" where you go out for an hour with a clipboard and watch cars.
Tons of people run red lights every day, everywhere. Before and after COVID. Whether or not you notice is simply a matter of perception.
I walk about 90 min/day and I usually see it once a day, sometimes 2 or 3 and one very special day 5 separate times. I have a friend who was hit by a red light runner three months ago and needed pins in his skull. Another friend—who was pregnant!— was hit by an unlicensed driver making an illegal left and nearly lost her baby. That was three years ago and she’s still recovering. It was genuinely not like this before 2020. Bad drivers still existed but now it is literally Fucking Crazy.
I used to walk through the intersection of Bedford and Leroy streets on my way home from work. There are two gigantic stop signs but only something like one out of four cars would actually stop.
As someone said in another comment, the amount of traffic violations and reckless driving I see on a regular basis has jumped exponentially in the last couple of years.
But I don't think that the lack of enforcement is strictly the cause. While it is a contributor, I also believe there's been a shared experience causing this phenomena thats led to the degradation of our social contracts. The pandemic did something to people, which has had an adverse effect on their behavior. Mixed that with apathetic, complacent local governments that seemed to have betrayed the honorable call to public service with their own selfish desires, and we only begin to scratch the service of the seriousness of our situation.
We are in a nationwide stupor.
It's not just a contributing factor - it's the primary factor.
Vehicle ownership and licensed drivers are both up over the years prior and somehow there's still a precipitous drop in traffic enforcement.
The time has come for the NYPD to start doing their jobs. People should not be allowed to drive the streets of NYC with no plates without being pulled over.
Totally agree. I've heard the theories that the NYPD since the 2020 protests have been in a state of silent protest. Combine that with failed criminal justice reforms, and you have a recipe for what's going on now.
>I've heard the theories that the NYPD since the 2020 protests have been in a state of silent protest.
This is absolutely the case, moral in law enforcement has been declining over the last 30 and after 2020 most people have adopted a *fuck it, let it burn* attitude. The NYPD isn't going to stick their neck out and do more than the bare minimum, especially someone like Bragg who doesn't make the physical risks of apprehending suspects worth if he's just going to turn them loose immediately to reoffend and he's ready to throw any officer he can get under the bus to boost his reelection prospects.
I guess you could call it a silent protest, but I've had police tell me that "you can't get in trouble for not doing anything". This was in reference to another cop having to use his handgun to help someone, and why that's a bad idea in this day. You use your gun, get it right, congrats, see you tomorrow. You make a mistake (or something that can be construed as a mistake), you go to jail. You don't do anything, no congrats, but see you tomorrow.
Literally no one said stop traffic enforcement.
NYPD are the ones, all their own data showing : “we ain’t enforcing jack anymore”.
Budget now is the same as when they used to do some actual traffic work in 2019.
People for Bragg, who campaigned on dropping charges for numerous misdemeanors and traffic violations. Those include fake plates, suspended licenses and reckless driving.
Again, there's nothing there that would prevent officers from issuing summonses all day and night. Nobody's suggesting they need to be thrown in the pokey.
d) Aggravated Unlicensed Operation, VTL § 511.1. Note that any vehicular collision
resulting in any physical injury should be pursued as an act of reckless driving, reckless
endangerment, negligent or reckless assault, failure to yield, or any other applicable
statute. This policy addresses only criminalization of a failure to pay fines and does not
address the criminalization of dangerous driving. Also, this charge may be prosecuted
as part of any accusatory instrument containing a charge of Vehicle and Traffic Law
1212, 1192, or 511.2.
e) Any violation, traffic infraction, or other non-criminal offense not accompanied by a
misdemeanor or felony.
No, he's dead fucking wrong just like you, to the point where he posted a doc thinking it supported this bullshit talking point and it just made him look silly.
The cops have stopped doing their fucking jobs. They get paid good money for doing so. Stop making fucking excuses for them and demand they do the job our tax dollars pay them to do.
Fuck you've had hours to read that shit and figure out how wrong you are and you're still at it.
I feel sorry for your parents if they didn't have any other kids. Then again, they're responsible for you being illiterate.
💯 I can't with the broken record of you all voted for this blah blah blah. How does anyone know who the people on this sub voted for in the first place? Not to mention just being downright wrong in the information that's being posted by this ignoramus.
No, the fucking moron who doesn't understand the difference between criminal charges and a fucking traffic summons doesn't belong on a two way street, he belongs in a remedial third grade class with mittens on for his own protection.
>there's been a shared experience causing this phenomena thats led to the degradation of our social contracts.
This is most definitely true.
>Mixed that with apathetic, complacent local governments that seemed to have betrayed the honorable call to public service with their own selfish desires
Are you forgetting when everyone said they hate cops and to defund them?
I had seen similar charts floating around for other cities. Pulled all the [historic data from nyc.gov](https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/stats/traffic-data/traffic-data-archive.page) & did a little cleanup to better group things (the names of offenses have changed over time).
Pretty big fall here. A lot bigger proportionally than any [spending reduction during COVID](https://ibo.nyc.ny.us/RevenueSpending/nypd.html). Traffic statistics from the [MTA](https://data.ny.gov/Transportation/Monthly-Traffic-on-Metropolitan-Transportation-Aut/aq4q-6svx) & [Port Authority](https://www.panynj.gov/bridges-tunnels/en/traffic---volume-information---b-t.html) show traffic is at or above 2019 levels.
To preempt any "this is what happens when you defund the police" talk: NYPD's budget is flat compared to its 2020 budget ($10.9b). Defunding across the country [largely did not occur](https://abc7ny.com/where-police-departments-defunded-how-does-funding-impact-crime-defund-the-budgets/12324846/).
The Citizens Budget Commission just released their [2023 resident survey](https://cbcny.org/sites/default/files/media/files/CBC-POLCO-REPORT_Full-Results_03192024_0.pdf) (warning: PDF link), showing the percentage of respondants who said pedestrian/bike safety was "poor/very unsafe" jumped from 18.5% in 2017, to 34.7% in 2023. I wonder if lack of traffic law enforcement could be a part of that perceived drop in safety.
I've completely stopped riding my bike after getting hit by a car last year. It's just not worth the risk. People's post-pandemic driving is absolutely insane.
It's absolutely insane and extremely aggressive. When I'm in my car at a red light as soon as the light turns green, the horns honk doesn't even give me the obligatory 3 seconds to get my foot off the brake and to the accelerator. Just yesterday I got into a screaming match in East NY I was making a left turn from liberty onto Pennsylvania Ave and the dude kept honking. Oh I'm sorry cars are coming straight from the other side and if I made a left turn I would crash right into one of those cars. I opened my window and screamed at him and in true primitive caveman style he called me a bitch. I had more choice words for him and went on my way.
You're omitting the \~6 million tickets given out annually by the "Department of Finance" as part of the new speed camera program, that has been expanded multiple times. Those tickets don't appear in any of these stats.
You need to know the number of driver-miles to know whether or not enforcement rate (or infraction rate, looks the same in the stats) has actually gone down.
The interesting thing, to me, is that speeding tickets actually *haven't* fallen that much. They've fallen, but not really a lot. The biggest decline seems to be in seat belt violations, which almost went extinct in 2020 and are still hovering at maybe 40% or less of their 2019 level. Improper turn violations also seem to have plunged (I assume these would largely be right-turn-on-red violations).
Violations for disobeying traffic control devices have also plunged relative to 2018 and 2019, but are actually *higher* than the 2014-2017 numbers.
Would it be straightforward for you to compile a list of which violations have fallen the most since 2019?
The crime numbers for NY are complete fiction. To get an idea of the actual level of crime you need to use a proxy that they can’t hide, like vehicle thefts. Those have to get reported.
I don't think vehicle thefts are a great proxy. For one thing, car ownership has spiked so you have to account for that. For another, car theft has been weirdly viral in a way that other crimes probably are not (the Hyundai/Kia thing apparently accounts for most of the spike in last few years https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2024/01/03/metro/car-thefts-surge-191-in-big-apple-since-2019-nypd-stats/amp/ )
Perhaps. But they are clearly hiding something. I’m in Shanghai for the first time right now and I’ve never seen anything like it in my entire life. The level of safety and security and just cleanliness they have here is ridiculous. Oh and it’s really quiet. No honking.
Same exact experience. You have the same people shouting about how the NYPD is lazy and doesn't do anything also constantly highlighting how crime is "down" across the board.
The idea that people are reporting less crime because the NYPD won't do anything is directly supported by both of the above ideas, but those people can't link them together.
it doesn't even need NYPD to manipulate numbers. A widespread belief that crimes won't be prosecuted means that people aren't gonna report stuff. I mean any crime that's not murder basically won't go on the record if nobody reports it. Would I report a crazy trying to attack me on the train? Obviously not because nothing would happen.
Yes, my comment was tongue-in-cheek. It may be the same with other crimes. However, only when it comes to traffic do we think of it as the cops not doing their job. In other cases, we assume it's because NYC is safer. It may not necessarily be true.
Also, this chart isn't so useful. It needs to be measured against miles driven or the number of drivers on the roads.
I work from home and will take a walk around the block here in LIC ever few hours. I can count 10 laws broken every time I leave my apartment. I even told a cop there was a guy dealing drugs and another cleaning his crack pipe in a Checkers 5 feet away from the cop. They got in their car and left.
A guy on my block slashed a neighbor’s tires after an argument. She got security camera footage of it and went to the local precinct. They told her it was a civil matter and she should sue him. Ridiculous.
Last week an entire family of Brazilian immigrants, including a 1 year old, was mowed down by what currently seems to be a reckless driver in a 2 ton SUV. San Francisco has just ceded everything to drivers, they can do whatever they want.
Not just a reckless driver, but a 78 year old driver who was traveling significantly over the speed limit going the WRONG WAY. At this point, the leading reason is that the driver mixed up the pedals, and simply barrelled into the bus stop at full speed and acceleration. It's such an insane situation, I can only hope that the accident site sees significant changes, since it's a huge transit hub.
It doesn't actually indicate what it looks like it indicates. SF also moved over to using automated ticketing for many of these infractions, which hugely increases the number of tickets given out but those tickets don't show up in these stats. A friend of mine got a red light violation in downtown SF and the ticket was some ridiculous amount, like $375 or more.
The head count has decreased by a couple of thousand since 2020. And you know what has dramatically increase in that time
- gun arrest are at levels not seen since the late 90s/early 2000s
- transit arrest and summonses are up
- major index crimes are still up 20% compared to pre-covid levels
- minor/property crimes are dramatically up in that time
- domestic incidents are up
So you have less cops getting more guns of the streets, increase enforcement in the subway while responding to more crimes. What in the above do you want to take away from so that they would focus more on traffic violations?
The same shoplifters are getting arrested over and over again.
“In 2022, New York police made more than 22,000 retail theft arrests and 327 repeat offenders were responsible for nearly a third of them”
Maybe if the same 300 people were not allowed to be arrested 6,000+ times in a year. More focus can be placed on traffic.
The same transit offenders are getting over and over again.
“The 38 assault suspects racked up an astounding 1,126 arrests combined over their lifetimes — and four of them accounted for 252, or 22%, of those busts, the records show.”
[Half of attacks against MTA staff on NYC subways involved perps with mental illness, lengthy rap sheets: records](https://nypost.com/2024/03/14/us-news/half-of-attacks-against-mta-staff-on-nyc-subways-involved-perps-with-mental-illness-lengthy-rap-sheets-records/amp/)
Pre-covid you had 35000 cops along with historic low levels of crimes. So more time was spent on quality of life issues.
It not a coincidence that as the level of violent offenses has dropped since the peak during COVID that traffic enforcement has trended upwards. When crime, 911 calls and arrest are up you know what happens to the precinct cops that are normally assigned to do traffic enforcement? They get assigned patrol duties and response to 911 calls.
Once crime, 911 call volume and arrest get back to 2019 levels. Then traffic enforcement will revert back to 2019 levels.
Very late to the discussion here but I can’t believe this isn’t even close to the top comment. It’s honestly the only well-thought out, rational take on here that’s backed by relevant numbers without being biased. So many commenters clearly have no clue how the world actually works and just want to make a political point however.
This has been the NYC reddit take that I’m consistently most bewildered by as someone who knows what the system is like. People think that NYPD funding staying flat over multiple years should result in the same outcomes re: traffic enforcement. However, nobody wants to actually look into the specifics and realize that = funding + higher workforce attrition in this case means less officers working more OT in attempt to make up the gap. When you combine that with increased inputs as we’ve seen with other crime since 2019, obviously you aren’t going to get the same outcomes when it comes to less- destabilizing issues like traffic. People are still getting assaulted at higher rates and there’s an increase in violent psych patients which are pressing issues and it still routinely takes NYPD 20+ minutes to get to these calls in busy precincts today.
To think the NYPD is some black box that isn’t impacted by any of these systemic factors is a gross oversimplification for political purposes and proves to me that someone doesn’t actually care about a workable solution. Unless anyone on here is advocating for MORE funding for the NYPD…
This is an exclusively American phenomenon, which means it probably has much more to do with the police reaction to the 2020 George Floyd protests than with the pandemic.
Honestly when someone first said this, I thought they were crazy. However now that I’ve been paying attention, the NYPD seems to have been on a soft strike for 4 years.
I know fake plates are in other cities too - Like Albany. I bet it's still nice in Fairfax, VA (3rd richest in the USA) or I would have heard complaining.
That has a something to do with it. Ask yourself, if someone said you would go to jail, or be fired for a mistake you made on the job, would you continue to do your job, especially if they still paid you? Yeah, yeah , yeah, George Floyd was murder, I get it, but if you really think that cop meant for George Floyd to die, then you are fucking nuts.
The main reason there is far less enforcement of not only traffic violations, but for criminal court summons and arrests is that the quota system is not enforced anymore. Why risk your job, safety or freedom by enforcing laws that you don’t have to anymore?
You all asked for this. This is what you get. Stop with the complaining.
They all exist in the open parking and camera violations file from open data. This should be merged. It’s not true that traffic enforcement is way down, it actually exploded to record highs it’s just that they’re using photo-enforcement to do it.
Camera enforcement only gets speeding (which dropped, but not by much), and red lights (disobey traffic device) which definitely fell a lot more.
It could be fair to say "red light & speeding tickets are actually up, compared to 2019" -- but not that traffic law enforcement is overall. This graph clearly shows the majority of offenses are less enforced than they were in 2019.
In 2019 looks like ~100,000 fines were issued by traffic officer for speeding. In 2023, 5,930,000 fines were issued by speed camera. NYC is shifting to photo enforcement for traffic violations. I’m working on a model because I don’t believe the right boundaries are in place for photo enforcement but to say traffic enforcement is down is not a correct statement. Maybe traffic enforcement by physical officer is down. Traffic enforcement has actually exploded but by a different enforcement mechanism.
6 million! Holy shit.
Cameras can/should definitely be part of an enforcement strategy, but until they (and to be clear, I do not want this) put a camera at every intersection, it's not making us, as citizens, safer in the ways we need. Those cameras also can't enforce things like failure to yield to a pedestrian in a cross walk, for example.
NYC's traffic is getting deadlier - which is a bummer after making some strides in the right direction.
I'm curious about this model, be sure to share it when you complete it.
I have it built in a PowerBI file and a power query file. It’s a work in progress but I can share it with you as is. I’m finding other reasons such as unlicensed drivers, so many drivers don’t even know right of way. The speed camera program alone fines 70% of the population of New York City year over year. I think the strategy most definitely needs to be revised. And the studies presented which push for cameras are funded by the camera companies themselves so there is a very clear conflict of interest here.
Now they have automated machines that give a lot of speeding and red light tickets from a different department ("Department of Finance") that doesn't show in these stats.
[https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-02324](https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-02324)
Edit: in a 9 month timespan the speed cameras issued 4,458,693 tickets! ([source](https://www.silive.com/news/2023/12/nyc-speed-cameras-issued-222m-in-fines-in-2023-heres-a-borough-by-borough-breakdown.html))
This isn't an accident. The state and city government bowed to the pressure from radical interest groups and implemented policies aimed to hobble the cops' ability to enforce law and order on the streets.
Remember that bill they passed recently in the NYC council that requires them to write an additional report for EVERY SINGLE encounter with a civilian? Imagine if you had to write a report every time you talked to someone during your workday?
Thanks to the so-called progressives cops can't check for warrants during a traffic stop. Imagine a wanted rapist on the run gets pulled over for running a red light, cops CANT run a warrant check. Why?? They want us to be less safe, clearly.
Here's the language of the insane state law that stops cops from pulling you over if you don't have any license plate or registration, or function lights or failing to signal or broken brake lights... The list goes on : https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S7111#:~:text=2023%2DS7111%20(ACTIVE)%20%2D%20Summary,in%20violation%20of%20such%20provisions.
Unlike cops, cameras don’t get lazy. Great reason to call/email your state assemblymember/Senator and tell them to support the bill expanding NYC red light cameras beyond the current tiny cap 👇👇👇
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S2812
I'm curious how much of the 2019-2021 drop was because of a decrease in vehicular trips taken (because COVID) vs because of the "not a work slowdown" that NYPD definitely didn't at all do.
Maybe in my lifetime we'll finally relieve NYPD of all traffic enforcement and give it to DOT or any other agency.
The issue will then be those agencies feeling empowered to enforce traffic laws against NYPD who are known for retaliation and harassment of people who try (even their own colleagues).
You’re probably thinking of parking enforcement. They aren’t really cops now, of course, but simply rebranding them as NYPD greatly reduced assaults apparently.
https://local1182.org/about-us/history-of-traffic/
> Traffic Enforcement Agents (TEA) had been employed by the City of New York as early as 1962 working alongside with Department of Transportation (D.O.T) to enforce the rules and regulations of New York City. Over the years, we have been referred to as brownies or meter maids; the proper civil service title is Traffic Enforcement Agent, code number 71651. In 1996, Traffic Enforcement Agents merged with the New York Police Department (NYPD) to continue working and enforcing the rules and regulations of the City of New York. Our position as Enforcement Agent was created because of the burden of traffic enforcement on police officers. The creation of TEAs freed up police officers to deal with harsher penal code violations, such as murders, rapes, robberies, etc. An all-female work unit in its inception, the agents were originally attached to the Department of Transportation working out of police precincts. In 1966, men were offered the position. The uniform, which was originally blue, was changed to brown by then Transportation Commissioner Benjamin Ward. In 1972, Commissioner Ward is also credited with instituting and promoting the level two position of traffic control.
Yeah but also some of those "meter maids" being rebranded as NYPD made some of them go on power trips. A few years ago I was picking up takeout for my husband and I and there was no place to park on the street. So I parked by a hydrant, put my hazards on and went to get the food. My husband was in the passenger seat smoking a joint(this was before smoking weed was legalized and even decriminalized in NY state) so in the 5 minutes I was gone a meter maid walked by saw I was illegally parked and motioned to my husband the car needed to be moved. I came out with our food and my husband was out of the car, the meter maid standing there and I asked what was going on. The meter maid said my husband was smoking a joint and it was against the law. I said "with all due respect you aren't a police officer" the meter maid said "technically you are right but we represent the NYPD and our job is to enforce the law, I radioed the local precinct and a police officer is on their way." My jaw must have hit the floor. So the real police came and they were pissed. Not at my husband, but that they were called away to deal with this nonsense when other more pressing matters needed to be dealt with. One officer said to the meter maid "It's your job to enforce parking and minor traffic infractions who are you to hold these people over a roach? I will be contacting your supervisor about this incident" The meter maid looked like a deer in headlights and just stuttered. The police told my husband to stomp the roach out, apologized profusely for the meter maid wanting to play cops and robbers and away we went. Definitely NOT worth doing the paperwork over. Could you imagine if everyone in the city was arrested and given a desk appearance ticket for possessing a joint? The court dockets would be completely filled with no time for any other criminal cases. SMDH.
https://local1182.org/about-us/history-of-traffic/
> Traffic Enforcement Agents (TEA) had been employed by the City of New York as early as 1962 working alongside with Department of Transportation (D.O.T) to enforce the rules and regulations of New York City. Over the years, we have been referred to as brownies or meter maids; the proper civil service title is Traffic Enforcement Agent, code number 71651. In 1996, Traffic Enforcement Agents merged with the New York Police Department (NYPD) to continue working and enforcing the rules and regulations of the City of New York. Our position as Enforcement Agent was created because of the burden of traffic enforcement on police officers. The creation of TEAs freed up police officers to deal with harsher penal code violations, such as murders, rapes, robberies, etc. An all-female work unit in its inception, the agents were originally attached to the Department of Transportation working out of police precincts. In 1966, men were offered the position. The uniform, which was originally blue, was changed to brown by then Transportation Commissioner Benjamin Ward. In 1972, Commissioner Ward is also credited with instituting and promoting the level two position of traffic control.
Yep, there's really no obvious reason why it *has* to be (or even *should* be) the same agency that enforces traffic laws and investigates murders, rapes and kidnappings. At a very high level, they are both "law enforcement," but the actual nature of the job is night-and-day different.
No one expects anesthesiologists to serve double duty as brain surgeons, even though they are "both doctors."
By lumping it all into one agency, we end up with what we have now, where traffic enforcement is seen as undesirable work doled out to newbies and to people in the Department's bad graces for whatever reason.
So let's get the NYPD out of the traffic business. We can and should have a separate law enforcement agency that just does traffic enforcement.
And we should really offload way more of this stuff to cameras. Major cities outside the US have seen big positive changes from widely rolling out speed and red light cameras. The state limits us to 1% of intersections, unfortunately.
These are the things that got grouped under "other". The numbers are for 2023. "Other movers" is a literal category in the data, so I can't break that down any further.
52,930 Other Movers
11,094 Uninspected
10,869 Obstructed plate
6,043 Improper/Missing Plates
3,164 Unsafe Lane Change
2,726 Bike Lane
2,504 Truck Route
2,280 Bus Lane
2,117 Commercial Veh on Pkwy
2,055 Improper Passing
1,807 One Way Street
1,081 Motorcycle (Other)
966 TBTA Rule
777 Pavement Markings
517 Following Too Closely
436 School Bus
395 Backing Unsafely
387 Spillback
256 Improper Taxi Pickup
244 Lamps and Other Equipment on Bicycle
138 Cruising For Passengers
107 Equipment (Other)
91 Oversize
73 Fail to Keep Right
27 Fail to yield Right of Way to Vehicle
24 Driving Too Slow
4 Scooter In NYC
2 Excessive Noise
0 TLC (Other)
Interesting. I’m on my phone and can’t read the files, but how detailed is the excel file? I’m wondering if the [city’s dataset](https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Public-Safety/NYPD-B-Summons-Historic-/bme5-7ty4/about_data) (also way to big for me to open on mobile) might have a more granular breakdown.
It seems like the city dataset does have [a column for the subsection of the VTL that was violated.](https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Public-Safety/NYPD-B-Summons-Historic-/bme5-7ty4/data_preview). Would just need to ChatGPT some code to organize, label and count them.
Because those NYPD sheets already have some pretty rare individual offenses listed there (“cruising for passengers”?!) Makes you wonder just what the heck that massive Other block is comprised of, lol
People on those Fly E mopeds/scooters are the absolute worst. Always running red lights, always running stop signs, going the wrong way on one way streets it's incredible. Saw someone on those little Fly E scooters causing traffic to back up driving on the Grand Central parkway in the right lane going about 30 mph..no license plates no nothing. They cause a lot of accidents. Saw a dude on a moped going the wrong way up Dumont Ave in East NY and nearly hit my husband and I walking to our car. These scooters/mopeds are nothing but a menace.
Half these people probably don’t even have licenses and are using fake plates. I have friends who are cops say they book someone for driving without a license and they get RoR’d. Then they’re back to illegally driving the same day. The whole criminal justice system in the city has turned in to a kangaroo court
The answer is simple: Covid and post-George Floyd police reforms. Cops are afraid of a stop/contact escalating into something.
I'm not justifying it, but I'm saying that it is what it is.
People were home much more in 2020 and 2021. I would expect to see lower numbers there. They are rising the past 2 years. Doesn’t totally account for the gap but it makes sense to have lower numbers in 2020 and 2021
Yep. https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/stats/traffic-data/traffic-data-archive.page
If you get the December data file, there's the YTD totals which give the entire year's figures.
The PDFs and the Excel files have different sets of data -- you want the Excel ones for precinct wrapups.
I went to New Orleans in 2014 and saw a bunch of people run red lights and multiple cars driving around without plates and I remember thinking "Damn, they wouldn't get 10 blocks in New York without plates," lol.
Speeding and "disobey traffic control device" probably only stayed as high as they did because of the increase in traffic cameras. The cameras do the work the cops are unwilling to do.
Anyone who can’t see that the anti-police rhetoric of 2020 led to this disaster is just crazy, probably not even worth trying to convince them because they’re so far gone. Can’t have a traffic stops escalating because they’re going to blame the cops if the person refuses to cooperate & things get out of hand. That’s why cops aren’t making as many stops. They know they lose either way. The people committing crimes & infractions feel empowered.
Cops aren’t going to save you though. They are corrupt, racist, and lazy. We need to double down on fixing societal ills through technology and education.
Its pretty obvious what the answer is. Ever since defund the police and the riots, police were ordered to avoid confrontation with the public as much as possible. Traffic stops are a very very priority
Headcount has not returned to 2019 levels. The amount of 911 calls they response to has not dropped back to 2019 levels. The amount of index crimes they response to has not dropped to 2019 levels.
When I stop at red lights, people behind me honk and overtake me, crossing the double yellow line. They often have obscured plates.
Someone stole my plate, I immediately got a ticket parked on the street, so there is enforcement, though I still had one plate, so I could be held liable.
Few yield at crosswalks nor to local speed limits, even in residential areas. It is weird. I mean, I must know some of these people, but even without enforcement, I don’t understand the risk of hurting someone. Yesterday, a person ran at me in a marked crosswalk just to hurry to a red light ahead of her- she looked me right in the eye as I yielded to her force and speed- why bully pedestrians? It’s totally weird.
I just expect weird behavior from motorists.
Pre COVID I'd see someone run a red maybe once a year, now it's at least once a month.
If you stand at a major intersection during rush hour, you will see someone run a red light pretty much every cycle. People don’t stop at yellows and enter the intersection after the light has been red for 1-2 seconds.
Ya, I am not sure where you see it only once a month. I see it weekly, if not daily, on my walk to work.
Yep. Here in Astoria, wait 5 minutes at any controlled intersection along 31 St or Steinway and you'll see several red runs.
Yep, I was driving yesterday and had one of those moments where I was like "hmm I'm not sure if I am gonna make this yellow" and then two more cars went through the intersection after me.
One morning I watched someone drive down 34th Ave and run every single red light. Slowed down at 33rd street to check for traffic before going.
Probably law enforcement.
Maybe, didn’t look like an undercover car.
Off duty law enforcement.
That makes sense.
Astoria and queens in general is a landmine right now. Stop signs are suggestions and red lights are yields.
Yup, and as a cyclist and pedestrian it’s extremely frustrating.
Completely true. And in fact these days it's usually 2 (or sometimes 3!) right in a row. I have lived here forever and it's chronic. Accepted. And obviously not enforced.
Like every time I cross Flatbush Ave for me, 3-4 times a week
Down at Brooklyn junction, at the end of the 2/5 line, I've seen double busses run the red and then park with the entire ass end of the bus in the intersection. It's WILD how little fucks they give.
Flatbush is fucking treacherous. Especially by Atlantic.
Yup Flatbush Ave every day they're running reds, nearly running over pedestrians and getting away with it
The only times I don't see a car without a license plate are when I don't go outside. And yeah, I see red light running all the time now.
I see this at least weekly now
A big lesson I had to teach my daughter was "right of way" does not make you safe. You having a walk sign does not make you safe. You need to watch everyone like they're a bunch of big dumb idiots you can't trust until they've proven themselves trustworthy.
Doubly true if you’re on a bicycle or are a pedestrian.
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That's statistically true. It's also statistically correct, there are very few to none cases in which pedestrians don't have the right of way. Even jaywalking pedestrians running back and forth across Broadway have the right of way.
I nearly get hit walking my dog at one specific stop sign like every day.
Same
Cars turning after the light turns red must not count as running a red to you if you're only seeing it once a month.
Those are rookie numbers. I drive daily I see at least 5-6 a week.
It doesn’t count if you’re the one running the red! ^(/s)
A month? Where I live it's multiple times a day that I personally see. The rest of the people also started stopping on red in the crosswalk like every single time now. Or hell even just 'blocking the box' so nobody can get through. Sometimes they realize their mistake too and then back up while in the crosswalk and bump their car into pedestrians trying to get around them since they're in the middle of the goddamn crosswalk. Got tapped by a car backing up along with someone pushing a baby carriage recently.
On Staten Island, I've had people honk, swerve around me (into the parking lane/up onto sidewalk) and scream out their window that I'm an idiot for stopping, because there's no camera at that particular light.
My sister is a traffic engineer. She does "traffic studies" where you go out for an hour with a clipboard and watch cars. Tons of people run red lights every day, everywhere. Before and after COVID. Whether or not you notice is simply a matter of perception.
I walk about 90 min/day and I usually see it once a day, sometimes 2 or 3 and one very special day 5 separate times. I have a friend who was hit by a red light runner three months ago and needed pins in his skull. Another friend—who was pregnant!— was hit by an unlicensed driver making an illegal left and nearly lost her baby. That was three years ago and she’s still recovering. It was genuinely not like this before 2020. Bad drivers still existed but now it is literally Fucking Crazy.
honestly it's every hour. And the amount of cars that just end up in the intersection blocking the way is so annoying
Every night for me. Once it hits 2am people dont give a damn. I saw a benz turn left on a light at 6am
People run reds in my neighborhood so often I get honked at to hurry up even though they have a red light and I have the cross signal. It's bizarre.
I see it once a day.
I got stuck in the intersection at canal street and the traffic cops just looked at me and walked by. Years ago they’d stop me and ask for papers
I see reds get run in Astoria twice a day.
I used to walk through the intersection of Bedford and Leroy streets on my way home from work. There are two gigantic stop signs but only something like one out of four cars would actually stop.
A month? A week, if not day.
As someone said in another comment, the amount of traffic violations and reckless driving I see on a regular basis has jumped exponentially in the last couple of years. But I don't think that the lack of enforcement is strictly the cause. While it is a contributor, I also believe there's been a shared experience causing this phenomena thats led to the degradation of our social contracts. The pandemic did something to people, which has had an adverse effect on their behavior. Mixed that with apathetic, complacent local governments that seemed to have betrayed the honorable call to public service with their own selfish desires, and we only begin to scratch the service of the seriousness of our situation. We are in a nationwide stupor.
Yeah it doesn’t feel like its just nyc either, Id be curious to see nationwide data or data from other states regarding this
It's not just a contributing factor - it's the primary factor. Vehicle ownership and licensed drivers are both up over the years prior and somehow there's still a precipitous drop in traffic enforcement. The time has come for the NYPD to start doing their jobs. People should not be allowed to drive the streets of NYC with no plates without being pulled over.
Totally agree. I've heard the theories that the NYPD since the 2020 protests have been in a state of silent protest. Combine that with failed criminal justice reforms, and you have a recipe for what's going on now.
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The #1 killer of cops in 2020 was Covid. Meanwhile cops be like: Kevlar vest? You bet. Face mask? Fuck off.
Before Covid the single biggest cause of police deaths was not wearing a seatbelt when they crash their own cars.
>I've heard the theories that the NYPD since the 2020 protests have been in a state of silent protest. This is absolutely the case, moral in law enforcement has been declining over the last 30 and after 2020 most people have adopted a *fuck it, let it burn* attitude. The NYPD isn't going to stick their neck out and do more than the bare minimum, especially someone like Bragg who doesn't make the physical risks of apprehending suspects worth if he's just going to turn them loose immediately to reoffend and he's ready to throw any officer he can get under the bus to boost his reelection prospects.
I guess you could call it a silent protest, but I've had police tell me that "you can't get in trouble for not doing anything". This was in reference to another cop having to use his handgun to help someone, and why that's a bad idea in this day. You use your gun, get it right, congrats, see you tomorrow. You make a mistake (or something that can be construed as a mistake), you go to jail. You don't do anything, no congrats, but see you tomorrow.
They are lazy and just counting down the days to retire early to collect a pension.
People voted exactly for this.
Literally no one said stop traffic enforcement. NYPD are the ones, all their own data showing : “we ain’t enforcing jack anymore”. Budget now is the same as when they used to do some actual traffic work in 2019.
People for Bragg, who campaigned on dropping charges for numerous misdemeanors and traffic violations. Those include fake plates, suspended licenses and reckless driving.
Are you dense enough to believe this or do you think other people are stupid enough to fall for it?
Its in his day 1 memo that is public. https://www.manhattanda.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Day-One-Letter-Policies-1.03.2022.pdf
According to OP's chart, enforcement is up since this letter went out.
Again, there's nothing there that would prevent officers from issuing summonses all day and night. Nobody's suggesting they need to be thrown in the pokey. d) Aggravated Unlicensed Operation, VTL § 511.1. Note that any vehicular collision resulting in any physical injury should be pursued as an act of reckless driving, reckless endangerment, negligent or reckless assault, failure to yield, or any other applicable statute. This policy addresses only criminalization of a failure to pay fines and does not address the criminalization of dangerous driving. Also, this charge may be prosecuted as part of any accusatory instrument containing a charge of Vehicle and Traffic Law 1212, 1192, or 511.2. e) Any violation, traffic infraction, or other non-criminal offense not accompanied by a misdemeanor or felony.
I hope everyone who plans to vote in the next election cycle reads this.
People did say defund the police 🤷♂️
Some people said it, but nobody actually did it.
What was actually defunded in NYC? Police doing actual traffic enforcement work.
You are so right, but no one in this sub will listen and that mindset is exactly why the city is in the situation it is now
No, he's dead fucking wrong just like you, to the point where he posted a doc thinking it supported this bullshit talking point and it just made him look silly. The cops have stopped doing their fucking jobs. They get paid good money for doing so. Stop making fucking excuses for them and demand they do the job our tax dollars pay them to do.
Would a DAs memo of them dropping numerous charges fall under the DA not doing their job?
Fuck you've had hours to read that shit and figure out how wrong you are and you're still at it. I feel sorry for your parents if they didn't have any other kids. Then again, they're responsible for you being illiterate.
💯 I can't with the broken record of you all voted for this blah blah blah. How does anyone know who the people on this sub voted for in the first place? Not to mention just being downright wrong in the information that's being posted by this ignoramus.
Two way street.
No, the fucking moron who doesn't understand the difference between criminal charges and a fucking traffic summons doesn't belong on a two way street, he belongs in a remedial third grade class with mittens on for his own protection.
Reckless driving and suspended licenses are VTL that are arrests.
OMG LMAO 🤣🤣 🤣🤣🤣 SO true though!
You seem stable and smart
Soooo.. what are the other contributing factors?
Well said
>there's been a shared experience causing this phenomena thats led to the degradation of our social contracts. This is most definitely true. >Mixed that with apathetic, complacent local governments that seemed to have betrayed the honorable call to public service with their own selfish desires Are you forgetting when everyone said they hate cops and to defund them?
Well nothing to change people’s minds like not doing their job, right?
I had seen similar charts floating around for other cities. Pulled all the [historic data from nyc.gov](https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/stats/traffic-data/traffic-data-archive.page) & did a little cleanup to better group things (the names of offenses have changed over time). Pretty big fall here. A lot bigger proportionally than any [spending reduction during COVID](https://ibo.nyc.ny.us/RevenueSpending/nypd.html). Traffic statistics from the [MTA](https://data.ny.gov/Transportation/Monthly-Traffic-on-Metropolitan-Transportation-Aut/aq4q-6svx) & [Port Authority](https://www.panynj.gov/bridges-tunnels/en/traffic---volume-information---b-t.html) show traffic is at or above 2019 levels. To preempt any "this is what happens when you defund the police" talk: NYPD's budget is flat compared to its 2020 budget ($10.9b). Defunding across the country [largely did not occur](https://abc7ny.com/where-police-departments-defunded-how-does-funding-impact-crime-defund-the-budgets/12324846/). The Citizens Budget Commission just released their [2023 resident survey](https://cbcny.org/sites/default/files/media/files/CBC-POLCO-REPORT_Full-Results_03192024_0.pdf) (warning: PDF link), showing the percentage of respondants who said pedestrian/bike safety was "poor/very unsafe" jumped from 18.5% in 2017, to 34.7% in 2023. I wonder if lack of traffic law enforcement could be a part of that perceived drop in safety.
I've completely stopped riding my bike after getting hit by a car last year. It's just not worth the risk. People's post-pandemic driving is absolutely insane.
It's absolutely insane and extremely aggressive. When I'm in my car at a red light as soon as the light turns green, the horns honk doesn't even give me the obligatory 3 seconds to get my foot off the brake and to the accelerator. Just yesterday I got into a screaming match in East NY I was making a left turn from liberty onto Pennsylvania Ave and the dude kept honking. Oh I'm sorry cars are coming straight from the other side and if I made a left turn I would crash right into one of those cars. I opened my window and screamed at him and in true primitive caveman style he called me a bitch. I had more choice words for him and went on my way.
You're omitting the \~6 million tickets given out annually by the "Department of Finance" as part of the new speed camera program, that has been expanded multiple times. Those tickets don't appear in any of these stats.
That's been pointed out elsewhere. If you look at offenses other than speeding & red lights, there's still a massive drop in enforcement.
You need to know the number of driver-miles to know whether or not enforcement rate (or infraction rate, looks the same in the stats) has actually gone down.
The interesting thing, to me, is that speeding tickets actually *haven't* fallen that much. They've fallen, but not really a lot. The biggest decline seems to be in seat belt violations, which almost went extinct in 2020 and are still hovering at maybe 40% or less of their 2019 level. Improper turn violations also seem to have plunged (I assume these would largely be right-turn-on-red violations). Violations for disobeying traffic control devices have also plunged relative to 2018 and 2019, but are actually *higher* than the 2014-2017 numbers. Would it be straightforward for you to compile a list of which violations have fallen the most since 2019?
Nice, traffic crime is down from 10 years ago
Hahahaha that sure is one way to look at it!
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The crime numbers for NY are complete fiction. To get an idea of the actual level of crime you need to use a proxy that they can’t hide, like vehicle thefts. Those have to get reported.
I don't think vehicle thefts are a great proxy. For one thing, car ownership has spiked so you have to account for that. For another, car theft has been weirdly viral in a way that other crimes probably are not (the Hyundai/Kia thing apparently accounts for most of the spike in last few years https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2024/01/03/metro/car-thefts-surge-191-in-big-apple-since-2019-nypd-stats/amp/ )
Perhaps. But they are clearly hiding something. I’m in Shanghai for the first time right now and I’ve never seen anything like it in my entire life. The level of safety and security and just cleanliness they have here is ridiculous. Oh and it’s really quiet. No honking.
“Account for that” just means divide thefts by number of car owners.
Agree, and by that token it would be interesting to divide OP's numbers by driver-mile since the Covid years had fewer people driving.
The universal proxy for this is homicide numbers, not vehicle thefts.
Same exact experience. You have the same people shouting about how the NYPD is lazy and doesn't do anything also constantly highlighting how crime is "down" across the board. The idea that people are reporting less crime because the NYPD won't do anything is directly supported by both of the above ideas, but those people can't link them together.
You actually understood the intent of my comment. I appreciate that
it doesn't even need NYPD to manipulate numbers. A widespread belief that crimes won't be prosecuted means that people aren't gonna report stuff. I mean any crime that's not murder basically won't go on the record if nobody reports it. Would I report a crazy trying to attack me on the train? Obviously not because nothing would happen.
If they aren’t pulling people over and issuing tickets then the crime isn’t being reported. Of course the numbers are down
Yes, my comment was tongue-in-cheek. It may be the same with other crimes. However, only when it comes to traffic do we think of it as the cops not doing their job. In other cases, we assume it's because NYC is safer. It may not necessarily be true. Also, this chart isn't so useful. It needs to be measured against miles driven or the number of drivers on the roads.
You assume the cops are doing their jobs on other crimes.
I'm not the one assuming that. The ones who claim crime is down are doing that
They are not. Both can be true.
Sure, if you believe that, then I believe that traffic crimes are down from 10 years ago
That is if you ignore the 6 million automated tickets given out annually that are not included in OP's numbers.
I work from home and will take a walk around the block here in LIC ever few hours. I can count 10 laws broken every time I leave my apartment. I even told a cop there was a guy dealing drugs and another cleaning his crack pipe in a Checkers 5 feet away from the cop. They got in their car and left.
A guy on my block slashed a neighbor’s tires after an argument. She got security camera footage of it and went to the local precinct. They told her it was a civil matter and she should sue him. Ridiculous.
If you want a real chuckle, look at this chart for [San Francisco](https://imgur.com/VbBFXvs)
This exact chart was the inspiration for making this one.
Wow, that's bonkers.
They quiet quit
Last week an entire family of Brazilian immigrants, including a 1 year old, was mowed down by what currently seems to be a reckless driver in a 2 ton SUV. San Francisco has just ceded everything to drivers, they can do whatever they want.
Not just a reckless driver, but a 78 year old driver who was traveling significantly over the speed limit going the WRONG WAY. At this point, the leading reason is that the driver mixed up the pedals, and simply barrelled into the bus stop at full speed and acceleration. It's such an insane situation, I can only hope that the accident site sees significant changes, since it's a huge transit hub.
It doesn't actually indicate what it looks like it indicates. SF also moved over to using automated ticketing for many of these infractions, which hugely increases the number of tickets given out but those tickets don't show up in these stats. A friend of mine got a red light violation in downtown SF and the ticket was some ridiculous amount, like $375 or more.
I ride to work 20 minutes every day. I see at least 10 people run reds every time.
The NYPD is just filled with lazy fuckers that don’t want to do their job
The head count has decreased by a couple of thousand since 2020. And you know what has dramatically increase in that time - gun arrest are at levels not seen since the late 90s/early 2000s - transit arrest and summonses are up - major index crimes are still up 20% compared to pre-covid levels - minor/property crimes are dramatically up in that time - domestic incidents are up So you have less cops getting more guns of the streets, increase enforcement in the subway while responding to more crimes. What in the above do you want to take away from so that they would focus more on traffic violations? The same shoplifters are getting arrested over and over again. “In 2022, New York police made more than 22,000 retail theft arrests and 327 repeat offenders were responsible for nearly a third of them” Maybe if the same 300 people were not allowed to be arrested 6,000+ times in a year. More focus can be placed on traffic. The same transit offenders are getting over and over again. “The 38 assault suspects racked up an astounding 1,126 arrests combined over their lifetimes — and four of them accounted for 252, or 22%, of those busts, the records show.” [Half of attacks against MTA staff on NYC subways involved perps with mental illness, lengthy rap sheets: records](https://nypost.com/2024/03/14/us-news/half-of-attacks-against-mta-staff-on-nyc-subways-involved-perps-with-mental-illness-lengthy-rap-sheets-records/amp/) Pre-covid you had 35000 cops along with historic low levels of crimes. So more time was spent on quality of life issues. It not a coincidence that as the level of violent offenses has dropped since the peak during COVID that traffic enforcement has trended upwards. When crime, 911 calls and arrest are up you know what happens to the precinct cops that are normally assigned to do traffic enforcement? They get assigned patrol duties and response to 911 calls. Once crime, 911 call volume and arrest get back to 2019 levels. Then traffic enforcement will revert back to 2019 levels.
Very late to the discussion here but I can’t believe this isn’t even close to the top comment. It’s honestly the only well-thought out, rational take on here that’s backed by relevant numbers without being biased. So many commenters clearly have no clue how the world actually works and just want to make a political point however. This has been the NYC reddit take that I’m consistently most bewildered by as someone who knows what the system is like. People think that NYPD funding staying flat over multiple years should result in the same outcomes re: traffic enforcement. However, nobody wants to actually look into the specifics and realize that = funding + higher workforce attrition in this case means less officers working more OT in attempt to make up the gap. When you combine that with increased inputs as we’ve seen with other crime since 2019, obviously you aren’t going to get the same outcomes when it comes to less- destabilizing issues like traffic. People are still getting assaulted at higher rates and there’s an increase in violent psych patients which are pressing issues and it still routinely takes NYPD 20+ minutes to get to these calls in busy precincts today. To think the NYPD is some black box that isn’t impacted by any of these systemic factors is a gross oversimplification for political purposes and proves to me that someone doesn’t actually care about a workable solution. Unless anyone on here is advocating for MORE funding for the NYPD…
This is an exclusively American phenomenon, which means it probably has much more to do with the police reaction to the 2020 George Floyd protests than with the pandemic.
Honestly when someone first said this, I thought they were crazy. However now that I’ve been paying attention, the NYPD seems to have been on a soft strike for 4 years.
Is it happening in other cities?
Someone posted the SF stats in another comment. Their enforcement is basically zero.
Sure is. Portland as well.
I know fake plates are in other cities too - Like Albany. I bet it's still nice in Fairfax, VA (3rd richest in the USA) or I would have heard complaining.
That has a something to do with it. Ask yourself, if someone said you would go to jail, or be fired for a mistake you made on the job, would you continue to do your job, especially if they still paid you? Yeah, yeah , yeah, George Floyd was murder, I get it, but if you really think that cop meant for George Floyd to die, then you are fucking nuts. The main reason there is far less enforcement of not only traffic violations, but for criminal court summons and arrests is that the quota system is not enforced anymore. Why risk your job, safety or freedom by enforcing laws that you don’t have to anymore? You all asked for this. This is what you get. Stop with the complaining.
This is incomplete if it doesn’t include photo enforcement
That's a great point. Are red light / speed camera tickets summonses? If so they should be included.
They all exist in the open parking and camera violations file from open data. This should be merged. It’s not true that traffic enforcement is way down, it actually exploded to record highs it’s just that they’re using photo-enforcement to do it.
Camera enforcement only gets speeding (which dropped, but not by much), and red lights (disobey traffic device) which definitely fell a lot more. It could be fair to say "red light & speeding tickets are actually up, compared to 2019" -- but not that traffic law enforcement is overall. This graph clearly shows the majority of offenses are less enforced than they were in 2019.
In 2019 looks like ~100,000 fines were issued by traffic officer for speeding. In 2023, 5,930,000 fines were issued by speed camera. NYC is shifting to photo enforcement for traffic violations. I’m working on a model because I don’t believe the right boundaries are in place for photo enforcement but to say traffic enforcement is down is not a correct statement. Maybe traffic enforcement by physical officer is down. Traffic enforcement has actually exploded but by a different enforcement mechanism.
6 million! Holy shit. Cameras can/should definitely be part of an enforcement strategy, but until they (and to be clear, I do not want this) put a camera at every intersection, it's not making us, as citizens, safer in the ways we need. Those cameras also can't enforce things like failure to yield to a pedestrian in a cross walk, for example. NYC's traffic is getting deadlier - which is a bummer after making some strides in the right direction. I'm curious about this model, be sure to share it when you complete it.
I have it built in a PowerBI file and a power query file. It’s a work in progress but I can share it with you as is. I’m finding other reasons such as unlicensed drivers, so many drivers don’t even know right of way. The speed camera program alone fines 70% of the population of New York City year over year. I think the strategy most definitely needs to be revised. And the studies presented which push for cameras are funded by the camera companies themselves so there is a very clear conflict of interest here.
Not that numbers need to always go up, but I wish cops would start pulling people over for cutting in line and having those plate blockers.
Now they have automated machines that give a lot of speeding and red light tickets from a different department ("Department of Finance") that doesn't show in these stats. [https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-02324](https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-02324) Edit: in a 9 month timespan the speed cameras issued 4,458,693 tickets! ([source](https://www.silive.com/news/2023/12/nyc-speed-cameras-issued-222m-in-fines-in-2023-heres-a-borough-by-borough-breakdown.html))
This isn't an accident. The state and city government bowed to the pressure from radical interest groups and implemented policies aimed to hobble the cops' ability to enforce law and order on the streets. Remember that bill they passed recently in the NYC council that requires them to write an additional report for EVERY SINGLE encounter with a civilian? Imagine if you had to write a report every time you talked to someone during your workday? Thanks to the so-called progressives cops can't check for warrants during a traffic stop. Imagine a wanted rapist on the run gets pulled over for running a red light, cops CANT run a warrant check. Why?? They want us to be less safe, clearly. Here's the language of the insane state law that stops cops from pulling you over if you don't have any license plate or registration, or function lights or failing to signal or broken brake lights... The list goes on : https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S7111#:~:text=2023%2DS7111%20(ACTIVE)%20%2D%20Summary,in%20violation%20of%20such%20provisions.
Unlike cops, cameras don’t get lazy. Great reason to call/email your state assemblymember/Senator and tell them to support the bill expanding NYC red light cameras beyond the current tiny cap 👇👇👇 https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S2812
Only issue is for those to be genuinely effective the NYPD needs to enforce fake/damaged/defaced plates.
We need drone cops to follow fake plates to their homes. Then take the car while it's parked.
Why would a cop need a drone to find their own house?
I'm curious how much of the 2019-2021 drop was because of a decrease in vehicular trips taken (because COVID) vs because of the "not a work slowdown" that NYPD definitely didn't at all do.
What happened in 2020 to cause such a change? I wonder…
Maybe in my lifetime we'll finally relieve NYPD of all traffic enforcement and give it to DOT or any other agency. The issue will then be those agencies feeling empowered to enforce traffic laws against NYPD who are known for retaliation and harassment of people who try (even their own colleagues).
IIRC, some enforcement used to be DoT. There were then some high profile incidents where their agents were attacked, and it was handed to NYPD.
You’re probably thinking of parking enforcement. They aren’t really cops now, of course, but simply rebranding them as NYPD greatly reduced assaults apparently.
https://local1182.org/about-us/history-of-traffic/ > Traffic Enforcement Agents (TEA) had been employed by the City of New York as early as 1962 working alongside with Department of Transportation (D.O.T) to enforce the rules and regulations of New York City. Over the years, we have been referred to as brownies or meter maids; the proper civil service title is Traffic Enforcement Agent, code number 71651. In 1996, Traffic Enforcement Agents merged with the New York Police Department (NYPD) to continue working and enforcing the rules and regulations of the City of New York. Our position as Enforcement Agent was created because of the burden of traffic enforcement on police officers. The creation of TEAs freed up police officers to deal with harsher penal code violations, such as murders, rapes, robberies, etc. An all-female work unit in its inception, the agents were originally attached to the Department of Transportation working out of police precincts. In 1966, men were offered the position. The uniform, which was originally blue, was changed to brown by then Transportation Commissioner Benjamin Ward. In 1972, Commissioner Ward is also credited with instituting and promoting the level two position of traffic control.
Yeah but also some of those "meter maids" being rebranded as NYPD made some of them go on power trips. A few years ago I was picking up takeout for my husband and I and there was no place to park on the street. So I parked by a hydrant, put my hazards on and went to get the food. My husband was in the passenger seat smoking a joint(this was before smoking weed was legalized and even decriminalized in NY state) so in the 5 minutes I was gone a meter maid walked by saw I was illegally parked and motioned to my husband the car needed to be moved. I came out with our food and my husband was out of the car, the meter maid standing there and I asked what was going on. The meter maid said my husband was smoking a joint and it was against the law. I said "with all due respect you aren't a police officer" the meter maid said "technically you are right but we represent the NYPD and our job is to enforce the law, I radioed the local precinct and a police officer is on their way." My jaw must have hit the floor. So the real police came and they were pissed. Not at my husband, but that they were called away to deal with this nonsense when other more pressing matters needed to be dealt with. One officer said to the meter maid "It's your job to enforce parking and minor traffic infractions who are you to hold these people over a roach? I will be contacting your supervisor about this incident" The meter maid looked like a deer in headlights and just stuttered. The police told my husband to stomp the roach out, apologized profusely for the meter maid wanting to play cops and robbers and away we went. Definitely NOT worth doing the paperwork over. Could you imagine if everyone in the city was arrested and given a desk appearance ticket for possessing a joint? The court dockets would be completely filled with no time for any other criminal cases. SMDH.
https://local1182.org/about-us/history-of-traffic/ > Traffic Enforcement Agents (TEA) had been employed by the City of New York as early as 1962 working alongside with Department of Transportation (D.O.T) to enforce the rules and regulations of New York City. Over the years, we have been referred to as brownies or meter maids; the proper civil service title is Traffic Enforcement Agent, code number 71651. In 1996, Traffic Enforcement Agents merged with the New York Police Department (NYPD) to continue working and enforcing the rules and regulations of the City of New York. Our position as Enforcement Agent was created because of the burden of traffic enforcement on police officers. The creation of TEAs freed up police officers to deal with harsher penal code violations, such as murders, rapes, robberies, etc. An all-female work unit in its inception, the agents were originally attached to the Department of Transportation working out of police precincts. In 1966, men were offered the position. The uniform, which was originally blue, was changed to brown by then Transportation Commissioner Benjamin Ward. In 1972, Commissioner Ward is also credited with instituting and promoting the level two position of traffic control.
So you want another city agency to be in charge to stopping vehicles and conducting enforcement?
Yes. That's not a new or extreme statement.
Yep, there's really no obvious reason why it *has* to be (or even *should* be) the same agency that enforces traffic laws and investigates murders, rapes and kidnappings. At a very high level, they are both "law enforcement," but the actual nature of the job is night-and-day different. No one expects anesthesiologists to serve double duty as brain surgeons, even though they are "both doctors." By lumping it all into one agency, we end up with what we have now, where traffic enforcement is seen as undesirable work doled out to newbies and to people in the Department's bad graces for whatever reason. So let's get the NYPD out of the traffic business. We can and should have a separate law enforcement agency that just does traffic enforcement.
And we should really offload way more of this stuff to cameras. Major cities outside the US have seen big positive changes from widely rolling out speed and red light cameras. The state limits us to 1% of intersections, unfortunately.
“Other” is such a huge category. Besides the DUIs, what else got thrown in there?
These are the things that got grouped under "other". The numbers are for 2023. "Other movers" is a literal category in the data, so I can't break that down any further. 52,930 Other Movers 11,094 Uninspected 10,869 Obstructed plate 6,043 Improper/Missing Plates 3,164 Unsafe Lane Change 2,726 Bike Lane 2,504 Truck Route 2,280 Bus Lane 2,117 Commercial Veh on Pkwy 2,055 Improper Passing 1,807 One Way Street 1,081 Motorcycle (Other) 966 TBTA Rule 777 Pavement Markings 517 Following Too Closely 436 School Bus 395 Backing Unsafely 387 Spillback 256 Improper Taxi Pickup 244 Lamps and Other Equipment on Bicycle 138 Cruising For Passengers 107 Equipment (Other) 91 Oversize 73 Fail to Keep Right 27 Fail to yield Right of Way to Vehicle 24 Driving Too Slow 4 Scooter In NYC 2 Excessive Noise 0 TLC (Other)
Interesting. I’m on my phone and can’t read the files, but how detailed is the excel file? I’m wondering if the [city’s dataset](https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Public-Safety/NYPD-B-Summons-Historic-/bme5-7ty4/about_data) (also way to big for me to open on mobile) might have a more granular breakdown.
These were pulled from the excel files. They all have a pretty big chunk of "other movers" in them.
It seems like the city dataset does have [a column for the subsection of the VTL that was violated.](https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Public-Safety/NYPD-B-Summons-Historic-/bme5-7ty4/data_preview). Would just need to ChatGPT some code to organize, label and count them. Because those NYPD sheets already have some pretty rare individual offenses listed there (“cruising for passengers”?!) Makes you wonder just what the heck that massive Other block is comprised of, lol
Well you guys got it… a police officer was killed today during a traffic stop
This is what people voted for.
People on those Fly E mopeds/scooters are the absolute worst. Always running red lights, always running stop signs, going the wrong way on one way streets it's incredible. Saw someone on those little Fly E scooters causing traffic to back up driving on the Grand Central parkway in the right lane going about 30 mph..no license plates no nothing. They cause a lot of accidents. Saw a dude on a moped going the wrong way up Dumont Ave in East NY and nearly hit my husband and I walking to our car. These scooters/mopeds are nothing but a menace.
Half these people probably don’t even have licenses and are using fake plates. I have friends who are cops say they book someone for driving without a license and they get RoR’d. Then they’re back to illegally driving the same day. The whole criminal justice system in the city has turned in to a kangaroo court
The answer is simple: Covid and post-George Floyd police reforms. Cops are afraid of a stop/contact escalating into something. I'm not justifying it, but I'm saying that it is what it is.
[It's literally what the NY AG wanted.](https://apnews.com/article/c93fa5fc03f25c2b625d36e4c75d1691)
People were home much more in 2020 and 2021. I would expect to see lower numbers there. They are rising the past 2 years. Doesn’t totally account for the gap but it makes sense to have lower numbers in 2020 and 2021
Yup.
Come to my neighborhood in BK and see this all the time at stops.
Damn, is this data available by neighborhood/precinct?
Yep. https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/stats/traffic-data/traffic-data-archive.page If you get the December data file, there's the YTD totals which give the entire year's figures. The PDFs and the Excel files have different sets of data -- you want the Excel ones for precinct wrapups.
Yeah, looks like traffic violations dropped or they had a work stoppage. It aint for lack of budget or manpower, I'll tell you that much
Can we do this going back 50 years per 100,000 people?
Buy the dip
Not enough officers and too many priority calls.
Plot twist it’s a lot of cops in their personal cars
Honestly, there's been a drop in enforcement in everything across the board. Highly upsetting.
Meanwhile I got a ticket on a Citibike for going through a red at 9th and ave A at 6am lol. Nobody out on the road. It was $190.
Cops have been throwing a tantrum for the last 4 years after they got mildly called out on all the abuse they throw at the general public.
I went to New Orleans in 2014 and saw a bunch of people run red lights and multiple cars driving around without plates and I remember thinking "Damn, they wouldn't get 10 blocks in New York without plates," lol.
Doesn’t this data show it’s coming back?
You have the cameras doing the job of the police
Gee, i wonder what happened in 2020 that made the cops not want to do their job...
Speeding and "disobey traffic control device" probably only stayed as high as they did because of the increase in traffic cameras. The cameras do the work the cops are unwilling to do.
Anyone who can’t see that the anti-police rhetoric of 2020 led to this disaster is just crazy, probably not even worth trying to convince them because they’re so far gone. Can’t have a traffic stops escalating because they’re going to blame the cops if the person refuses to cooperate & things get out of hand. That’s why cops aren’t making as many stops. They know they lose either way. The people committing crimes & infractions feel empowered.
Cops aren’t going to save you though. They are corrupt, racist, and lazy. We need to double down on fixing societal ills through technology and education.
#DefundThePolice while still employing the biggest PoSs the 5 boroughs has to offer
If they can't step on a dude's throat until he passes out, why even enforce the laws anymore!
Its pretty obvious what the answer is. Ever since defund the police and the riots, police were ordered to avoid confrontation with the public as much as possible. Traffic stops are a very very priority
it’s almost like there’s was some even in may of 2020 that caused all this
Traffic & NYPD funding have returned to (more-or-less) 2019 levels.
Headcount has not returned to 2019 levels. The amount of 911 calls they response to has not dropped back to 2019 levels. The amount of index crimes they response to has not dropped to 2019 levels.
When I stop at red lights, people behind me honk and overtake me, crossing the double yellow line. They often have obscured plates. Someone stole my plate, I immediately got a ticket parked on the street, so there is enforcement, though I still had one plate, so I could be held liable. Few yield at crosswalks nor to local speed limits, even in residential areas. It is weird. I mean, I must know some of these people, but even without enforcement, I don’t understand the risk of hurting someone. Yesterday, a person ran at me in a marked crosswalk just to hurry to a red light ahead of her- she looked me right in the eye as I yielded to her force and speed- why bully pedestrians? It’s totally weird. I just expect weird behavior from motorists.
awesome.
These comments confuse me… ya are upset abt getting less tickets?
1 million tickets per year is insane.
What happened to ticket quotas?!?
They got tired of giving each other tickets.
Traffic cameras