Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
The NYPD Only Has 56 Speed Guns, And Other Observations From The Vision Zero Hearing
By
Lauren Evans
Published Feb 25, 2014
Modified Feb 25, 2014
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Stephen Miller/Streetsblog
By
Lauren Evans
Published Feb 25, 2014
Modified Feb 25, 2014
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
A handful of Mayor de Blasio's top officials convened for an oversight hearing yesterday to talk about Vision Zero, a lofty Swedish concept that seeks to eliminate all traffic deaths by 2024.
The goal of the hearing—a joint venture by the City Council's Transportation and Public Safety committees—was to get details from heads of the NYPD, Department of Transportation and Taxi and Limousine Commission on each agency's specific plans for reducing traffic fatalities and injuries involving cars, bikes and pedestrians.
Council members came armed with a battery of questions for Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, the NYPD's newly appointed Transportation Chief Thomas Chan, and the TLC's Chief Operating Officer Conan Freud, a shellacking that occurred over the course of nearly three hours.
While each department was ready with their own respective lists of ideas, council members were incredulous as to how actual implementation would work. Chan said he plans to ramp up enforcement at the precinct level, targeting in particular the most dangerous violations like speeding and failure to yield. He added that intensive investigations will be conducted for all collisions resulting in critical injury, and that officers will be additionally trained to handle collision response.
But council members seemed reluctant to accept these promises on face value. Brooklyn Councilman Brad Lander repeatedly questioned Chan's plans for increased enforcement, given the department's already thinly stretched resources. Chan insisted it would be incumbent on officers already on patrol to keep an eye out for traffic violations, and that they would be held accountable for their results at Traffic Stat meetings.
"If [officers] had accidents in their particular sector, than I would want to see what they're doing," Chan said. Additional officers will also be trained to use speed guns, of which the NYPD will be acquiring an additional 200 (from the current 56), and a plan is in place to increase Highway Division patrols from 210 to 270.
Lander remained unconvinced. “You have to be able to commit the resources to do it, and that may mean actually pulling somebody from their cars into the places where they are able to write those summonses," he said.
Councilman Mark Weprin inquired as to whether the NYPD planned to crack down harder on reckless drivers, like those, for instance, who find their way onto sidewalks and walk away with no charges. Chan's response was less than satisfying: "We do have a Collision Investigation Department that will possibly take a look at those situations," he said, but ultimately change will come from Albany, where additional legislation could someday increase the penalty to a misdemeanor. "That would certainly help deter some of the accidents," he said, adding vaguely that each instance must be looked at "case by case."
DOT commissioner Polly Trottenberg also outlined her agency's plans for curbing traffic fatalities—altered signal timing to reduce speeding and intersection conflicts, new street lining and a more robust speed hump program, to name a few. Councilman James Vacca, though, was quick to point out the agency is already suffering from a backlog of speed humps—in many instances, installation is already more than a year late. "I support your commitment, I'm glad you're making that commitment, bet we have to free up that backlog," he said. Trottenberg admitted that was true. Still, she said, DOT aspires to redesign 50 of the city's deadliest corridors, reduce speeds on 25 arterial streets and improve lighting at 1,000 intersections.
"As soon as the weather gets a little better, you're going to see us out doing work on roadways all over the city, improving intersections, improving lighting, all the things that we've talked about in the report," Trottenberg insisted. "So those will be some concrete things you're going to see right away."
Tagged
City Council
dot
nypd
vision zero
original
Lauren Evans
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Central Park birders, others remember 63-year-old woman killed in park
People who said they knew her described her as an artist and a familiar presence in the Ramble.
By
Charles Lane
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. ET
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
News
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .