In New York, The School Year Will Start Without Promised Stop-Arm Cameras

Automated stop-arm enforcement won’t be enabled on New York City school buses when public schools reopen this week — nearly three years after the City Council authorized the life-saving cameras.

Other jurisdictions across the state have already implemented the tech, but it’s been slow going in five boroughs: The city launched a six-month “data collection pilot” on 30 buses last year, the results of which officials have not made public.

City Hall did not comment in response to multiple inquiries from Streetsblog asking for an update on the effort.

If and when the automated enforcement begins, violators who blow school bus stop signs will receive $250 for their first violation, $275 for their second and $300 for every subsequent ticket within an 18-month period, per city rules enacted last November.

Before he became Department of Transportation Commissioner, then-Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez sponsored the law that empowered the city to use stop-arm cameras, but his now-boss Mayor Adams has shown reluctance to pull the trigger.

A rep for Adams claimed in 2022 that drivers who violate school bus stop signs cause few serious injuries and no fatalities dating back to at least 2014 — echoing comments made by the DOT in 2019 in opposition to Rodriguez’s initial legislation.

City stats to back up that assertion are not available due to insufficient reporting by NYPD. A 2022 Streetsblog investigation found that streets with schools on them are far more dangerous than other city streets during the crucial pick-up and drop-off hours.

State lawmakers earlier this year extended the law permitting the use of stop-arm cameras through 2029.

As with speed- and red-light cameras, stop-arm cameras improve safety by changing driver behavior over time. A study by stop-arm camera contract BusPatrol found that stop-sign violations dropped 42 percent in Suffolk County in the three years after the county implemented automated enforcement in 2021.

Jurisdictions across the state have gotten in on the action.

Rockland County issued over 17,000 stop-arm violations since launching automated enforcement last school year, the Journal-News reported. Yonkers issued 18,132 as of late June after launching its program the previous November. Buffalo, meanwhile, will introduce stop-arm cameras this year “as part of a continued effort to keep students safe while traveling to and from school,” according to a June 20 statement from Mayor Byron Brown.

Advocates in the five boroughs are eager for the Big Apple to catch up.

“Automated traffic enforcement is an essential tool to protect New Yorkers, especially the youngest and smallest New Yorkers, from crashes,” Alexa Sledge of Transportation Alternatives said in a statement.

“Traffic violence has already killed twelve children across the city this year, and expanding automated enforcement to school buses is an important step to keep our children safe. We need to see this technology implemented as soon as possible so every child can arrive home safely from school.”