Establishes a demonstration project in the city of New York to enforce parking rules for the purpose of street cleaning

BILL NUMBER:S5536

Title of bill

An act to amend the vehicle and traffic law and the public officers law, in relation to establishing in the city of New York a demonstration program to enforce street cleaning parking rules by means of street cleaning vehicle photo devices

Summary of provisions

This bill amends the Vehicle and Traffic Law and the Public Officers Law to authorize the City of New York to establish a demonstration program imposing liability on the owners of motor vehicles found to be in violation of street cleaning parking rules in the City through the use of a photo device which captures or records, and produces by photographic, microphotographic, digital tape or other recording system, an image of a motor vehicle parked unlawfully on the street that impedes the City's ability, through the Department of Sanitation, to effectively clean the street under its street cleaning program. The City will be authorized to operate cameras on its street cleaning vehicles assigned to street cleaning routes in up to twenty-five community districts in the City.

Reasons for support

Maintaining street cleanliness and litter control in New York City are important quality-of-life concerns for property owners, businesses and the New York City Department of Sanitation. Street cleaning parking rules ensure that there is open and unhindered curbside accessibility to Department workers who operate street cleaning vehicles, also known as mechanical brooms, to clean over 6,000 curb miles of the City's streets in the boroughs of Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens that are covered by such street cleaning rules. The Department schedules an average of 200 mechanical brooms per weekday to sweep the City's streets. These vehicles are equipped with heavy duty brushes or "brooms" that loosen street debris and contain a mechanism to spray the street with water for reducing air pollutants on the street. Any decrease or loss of a substantial portion of the Department's cleaning capability as a result of vehicles parked in violation of alternate side parking restrictions greatly affects community cleanliness.

The purpose of this legislation is to develop a system that will supplement current enforcement efforts by using technology to record parking violations on film or other recording device. The program will operate in the same manner as the Red Light Camera Program and the Bus Lane Program, which have successfully reduced red light and bus lane violations in the City.

Technology presently exists that will capture vehicles parked unlawfully without the presence of a police or uniformed sanitation enforcement officer. A photo device would be placed on a street cleaning vehicle and would capture or record, and produce by photographic, microphotographic, digital tape or other recording system an image of a motor vehicle that is parked unlawfully in violation of street cleaning parking rules posted on traffic signs. This image can then be used as evidence in a proceeding before the

New York City Parking Violations Bureau to impose liability on the owner of the vehicle for the parking violation. This technology is presently in use on some street cleaning vehicles in the District of Columbia and in the City of Chicago.

The enactment of this legislation, which is modeled after the enabling legislation that authorized the Red Light Camera Program and the Bus Lane Program, will enable the City to continue to explore the use of new technology as a means of improving the quality of life in the City.