A new report released today documents alarmingly high traffic violations on New York City streets, and charts a course for the NYPD to reduce the most dangerous driving behaviors. From Chaos to Compliance (PDF) concludes that without an understanding of where violations like failure to yield and red light-running occur, the NYPD cannot deploy enforcement in an informed way or justify the need for additional resources.

Currently, NYPD cannot deploy resources to intersections with the highest rates of traffic violations because it does not track the level of compliance with traffic laws. There is no monitoring in place to determine what percentage of drivers are failing to yield, running red lights or speeding. The NYPD's only metric is the number of summonses issued, which may bear no relation to the underlying problem. From Chaos to Compliance demonstrates a methodology by which the NYPD can begin tracking moving violations.

In 38 hours observing four intersections, Transportation Alternatives researchers found:

• Traffic law violations occur three times every minute (157 times an hour) per intersection.
• On average, each intersection had 24 Failure to Yield violations per hour. Failure to Yield is the second most frequent human factor in causing motor vehicle crashes.
• On average, each intersection had 100 Traffic Control Disregard violations per hour. Traffic Control Disregard contributed to 2,489 crashes citywide in 2007.
• Over 38 hours of surveying, no summonses were issued for any moving violations, although they would have netted a total of $478,645 if apprehended.
• 43% of pedestrians actually avoid an area or intersection in their neighborhood because they feel endangered by lawless driving.

To ameliorate the widespread disregard of traffic rules, Transportation Alternatives recommends the NYPD begin widespread data collection of the most dangerous driving behaviors, as demonstrated in From Chaos to Compliance, as a precursor to deploying officers to crash-prone and violation-prone locations.

"New York City can't afford to keep driving blind when it comes to traffic enforcement," says Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. "Our report shows how widespread violations like failing to yield and running red lights are on our streets, and how the NYPD can redeploy in a more informed way to bring those numbers down."

The full report is available for download at: transalt.org/files/newsroom/reports/2009/Chaos_to_Compliance.pdf (PDF).

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