Deployment of Fixed Speed Cameras in New York City Reduced Traffic Crashes by 14 Percent.
The New York City Longitudinal Study Assessed the Short- and Long-Term Changes Associated with an Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) Program’s Expansion from 2019 to 2021.
New York City, New York, United States
Assessing the impact of fixed speed cameras on speeding behavior and crashes: A longitudinal study in New York City
Summary Information
Speeding is a major contributor to fatal crashes, with traditional enforcement capturing few violations. To address this, New York City launched and expanded an Automated Speed Enforcement program under Vision Zero, focusing on school zones and extending its reach and hours of operation to curb speeding and improve safety. This study summarizes the program’s benefits in reducing speeding and preventing crashes.
METHODOLOGY
The study offered an in-depth longitudinal analysis of the short-term and long-term impacts of an automated speed enforcement program using more than 1,800 fixed speed cameras in school zones that operate 10 AM to 6 PM and investigated the surge in speeding behavior due to COVID-19. The short-term analysis used descriptive analysis and clustering techniques to evaluate the immediate impact of all speed cameras (about 1,821 cameras) in reducing speeding behavior and crashes in the first four months post-installation. The long-term analysis was performed to a subset of the speed cameras (approximately 600 cameras) that were installed in 2019 and were actively used between August 01, 2019, and December 31, 2021, utilizing interrupted time-series analysis using Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and clustering techniques. A survival analysis with random effect (SARE), was leveraged to conduct a before-after crash analysis.
FINDINGS
- The findings suggest a decrease in speeding tickets by an average of 18.4, 13.3, and 0.6 percent in the second-, third-, and fourth-month post-installation, demonstrating the program’s short-term efficacy in reducing speeding behavior.
- The long-term analysis revealed that ASE program resulted in a 75 percent reduction in speeding tickets by the end of 2021, despite the temporary surge during the pandemic.
- The crash analysis showed a statistically significant 14 percent decrease in traffic crashes (pre-COVID) following speed camera implementation.
