State Legislature

Legislation targeted at NYPD's self-imposed ban on citing motorists for careless driving has passed the State Senate transportation committee.

One of the more pernicious shortcomings of New York State's slapdash traffic justice system is its failure to keep dangerous drivers off the road. As long as repeat offenders pay their fines and don't get caught driving drunk, they can for the most part count on holding on to a drivers license, no matter how many tickets they receive, even if they cause a fatality.

Albany legislation to let New York City enforce its speed limit using automated cameras got a new lease on life last week. A slate of amendments have made the bill more politically palatable, and Staten Island Republican Andrew Lanza has introduced a version of the bill in the State Senate, the first time this version of the bill has been live in the legislature's upper chamber.

If you get drunk, get behind the wheel of a car and get into a crash in New York State, you should flee the scene. Not morally, of course, but legally the repercussions will be less severe. A drunk driver who stays at the scene of a crash can be charged with a felony; sober up and take the hit-and-run charge and the worst you'll face is a misdemeanor.

At the February City Council hearing on NYPD traffic enforcement, council members and the public learned that a driver who injures a pedestrian or cyclist in New York City is not normally cited under the state vulnerable user laws unless an officer witnesses the violation. NYPD officials said department protocol prohibits precinct officers from issuing tickets under VTL 1146, the state statute that includes Hayley and Diego’s Law as well as Elle’s Law, because the citations are prone to being dismissed in court.

With the next three years of the MTA capital plan officially moving forward -- even without dedicated funding from Albany -- it's time to start talking about 2015. That's when the next MTA capital plan starts. And distant as it may seem, on the political calendar it's just around the corner.

Transit riders in the 33rd State Senate district may finally have a champion in Albany.

The MTA doesn't face an immediate crisis thanks to the budget deal struck by Albany's leadership yesterday. But with the deal continuing to rely on debt to pay for the next three years of repairs and expansions, it doesn't put the region's transit system on firm financial footing either.

Andrew Cuomo may have handed continued control of the State Senate to the Republican Party by allowing them to draw their own districts, but 2012 is still an election year. With the Senate leadership's latest attack on transit funding, they aren't making it any easier for their New York City candidates to win.