This fall, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law bills containing the state’s permission for three cities — Mount Vernon, Schenectady and White Plains — to test camera enforcement for school speed zones.
Public officials and drivers in those cities ought to know that the City of Albany’s similar test program has a bug.
The Legislature passed a law in 2023 to allow Albany to test a school speed camera enforcement program for up to 20 school speed zones. Albany activated cameras during the 2024-25 school year. Drivers caught on camera going ten miles an hour or more over the 20 mph school zone speed limit receive citations with $50.00 fines.
It turns out Albany left the cameras on in certain school speed zones for summer programs but many drivers did not get the message until citations arrived in the mail.
School speed zone infractions caught on camera went up in July to 30,284 from 23,314 citations issued in June. The speed zone cameras for one downtown school — Blessed Sacrament — accounted for 11,617 citations in June after coming online on June 5. Then drivers racked up another 17,097 citations in July.
Leaving the new camera at the busy downtown location aside, school speed zone violations caught on camera for 14 locations the city phased in between October and May that remained active in July totaled 8,665 in June.
That number spiked to 13,187 in July for those 14 zones. And under the summer schedules, those cameras were on for around 70 percent of their normal operating hours.
Operating a fraction of the time, violations in the 14 older zones went up over 50 percent in July, bucking the trend of citation rates going down over time in each speed zone as drivers learned of and adapted to the camera enforcement.
Thus, the data show cameras caught drivers in Albany unaware and the city did not do a very good job of giving warning.
Locals tuned to the right news sources at the right time may have seen stories in late June with warnings that school speed zones would be active and cameras on for certain hours on certain days at certain schools during the summer. And diligent searchers could find information about active school speed zones during the summer in a corner of the Mayor’s Office website.
Otherwise, the signs for Albany’s camera-enforced school speed zones advise drivers that the school speed zone is in effect from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on school days. The time posted is consistent with state law that permits local governments to set lower speed limits for school zones. State law, however, does not define school days.
Most New Yorkers would understand “school day” to mean a day when school is in session, e.g., weekdays during the school year that are not holidays, with July and August being months when schools are not in session across the Empire State.
Drivers caught speeding could argue in good faith that the city did not give a fair warning with signs showing the school speed zone is in effect from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on school days and with nothing else to show a zone as active for limited hours on certain days in July and August.
Worse, the speed zone cameras appeared to catch drivers on days with no scheduled school activities.
The city advised that speed zone cameras for the Harriet Myers Middle School would be active from July 7 through August 7 from 7:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. But the school district’s website showed that the middle school ran a summer program from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Monday through Thursday between those dates.
The cameras caught 471 drivers over the middle school’s speed zone limit during the summer program dates — 66 of those happened on Fridays when the summer program was not in session.
Even if they knew the correct days, drivers needed to keep variable hours straight. Only a few blocks down the same street from Harriet Myers, the Albany School of Humanities school speed zone camera was on another hour each day.
Thus, drivers maintaining a steady 32 miles per hour over a few city blocks could receive two citations seconds apart at noon, one at 1:00 and none at 2:00 p.m. All while the signs showed a speed zone in effect from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on school days.
To be sure, state law provides for school speed zones to be active at different times. Section 1180 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law contains a provision local governments can use to activate school speed zones at alternative hours between 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. or “a period when the beacons attached to the school zone speed limit sign are flashing and such sign is equipped with a notice that indicates that the school zone speed limit is in effect when such beacons are flashing.” The beacons must flash during school activities and for 30 minutes before and after those school activities.
Drivers who received citations for violations in July and August may have raised their eyebrows but still slowed down signs with flashing beacons attached to signs for an active school speed zone.
But they have arguments to make that Albany did not provide fair warning when it’s reasonable to believe “school days” does not mean weekdays in July and August. Adding to the arbitrariness, the speed zones were in effect for a fraction of the city’s schools and for only a part of the posted speed zone hours, which varied from school to school.
Officials in cities testing school speed zone camera programs ought to provide fair warning to drivers and opt for a system that warns drivers that speed zones and cameras are active with flashing beacons and accurate signs, especially if the cameras will be active on days that drivers would not think to be school days. Press releases and limited news coverage are not helpful to anyone who does not tune in on the right day or lives outside the local media market — Albany’s cameras caught over 4,000 out-of-state drivers in July and August.
The Legislature and the Governor should make sure any future laws for test or permanent speed zone camera programs mandate warnings like flashing lights and accurate signs so not to repeat the obvious confusion shown in Albany this past summer.
