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city councilman chaim deutsch

Shore Parkway Speed Camera Tops City’s List Of Ticket-Generators

Heather Chin

Heather Chin

— 2 min read
Shore Parkway Speed Camera Tops City’s List Of Ticket-Generators
Image via WNYC.
See that red dot there at the bottom? Yeah, that’s the spot. (Image via WNYC.)

It’s been a year since a speed camera was placed at the Belt Parkway exit ramp on Shore Parkway, between West Avenue and Ocean Parkway, and the results confirm what residents have long suspected: it is the highest revenue-generating camera in the city.

According to data culled and mapped out by WNYC, the camera at that location produced 55,719 tickets over 90 active days in 2014, at an average of 619 tickets per day, generating approximately $2.8 million in revenue from drivers.

As of today, that amount has gone up to 60,325 tickets over 105 active days, at an average of 575 tickets per day. That rate eclipsed all other cameras in the city, with the next highest revenue-generating camera in Queens on the eastbound lane of the Horace Harding Expressway at Peck Avenue producing a comparably paltry 36,860 tickets over 102 active days.

Sheepshead Bites first reported back in late September that the controversial camera doled out approximately 6,000 violations in just one day, according to Councilmember Chaim Deutsch. That estimate was then refuted by the DOT, which claimed in an email to us that they issued 1,551 violations on July 7, suggesting that that is the peak date.

But this new data comes as affirmation that “this camera needs to get moved ASAP,” as Councilmember Mark Treyger declared on Facebook this week.

“Not one student or person in general crosses this highway exit ramp [and] the location of this camera completely undermines and circumvents the intent of the state law to protect students crossing streets to get to school,” Treyger wrote. “Drivers aren’t given enough time to slow down exiting the highway and this gotcha location also creates safety issues by having drivers brake hard on the Belt Parkway potentially causing rear-end accidents. I’m doubling down on my call to have this revenue-generating camera moved to where students actually cross!”

The Shore Parkway camera also stands out from its camera-peers as a “money-making ‘speed trap'” for, as WNYC notes, “catch[ing] drivers exiting highways where there is no pedestrian crossing — here, one side is a fence. Transportation officials say it’s about safety, not money, and that cameras protect all road users.”

The other two camera styles utilized by the city are those stationed at busy intersections and those attached to roving police cars or other vehicles for a day or two at a time.

In our area, other cameras noted on WNYC’s map include:

  • Nostrand Avenue between Shore Parkway and Avenue Z: 490 tickets over 8 active days (most recently January 22, 2015)
  • Northbound Knapp Street between Shore Parkway and Voorhies Avenue: 55 tickets over 3 active days (most recently January 15, 2015)
  • Westbound Shore Parkway between Knapp Street and Batchelder Street: 1,234 tickets over 5 days (most recently December 4, 2014)
  • Knapp Street between Avenue V and Avenue X: 471 tickets over 6 days (most recently January 26, 2015)
  • Northbound Gerritsen Avenue at Devon Avenue: 714 tickets over 15 active days
  • Northbound Gerritsen Avenue between Devon and Whitney Avenues: 714 tickets over 15 active days

Browse all the camera locations and ticket numbers here:

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