A program meant to crack down on dangerous drivers did not dramatically reduce their sketchy behavior on New York City streets, the Department of Transportation wrote in a new report on Friday.
The finding was included in a new review of the agency’s Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program, which advocates and elected officials widely view as a failure. The Department of Transportation recommended ending the program.
The program gave vehicle owners who received five red light tickets or 15 speeding tickets within 12 months the choice of taking a driver safety course or having their vehicle seized.
Roughly half of the 1,605 people notified they had to take the class actually completed it as of March 31 – far short of estimates when the program went into effect in November 2021.
An analysis of behavior after drivers took the course yielded mixed results. The number of total speed violations by course participants declined from 3,120 before taking the course to 1,333 after taking the course. But red light violations actually slightly increased, from 105 before taking the course to 111 after.
“The results of the DVAP pilot indicate that it is likely not a lack of education that explains the unsafe behaviors of the small number of drivers who accrue many speed or red light camera violations. Despite attending a safety course, most continued to accumulate multiple violations,” the report found.
“It may be that some DVAP-eligible vehicle owners respond to intervention with defiance and anger, leading to worse outcomes after interventions meant to improve the behavior of problem drivers.”
Course participants all described themselves in a survey as either “very confident” or “somewhat confident” that they were safe drivers. “These perceptions were not always in line with reality,” the report stated, noting that “several” participants accrued double-digit speed violations after taking the course.
The finding was among the reasons the transportation department cited in its conclusion that determining the program’s effectiveness was too difficult.
Other factors making it difficult to assess the program included separate efforts to crack down on dangerous driving, the agency wrote.
For example, the overall number of speed camera tickets dropped by 5% across the city from 2021 to 2022, even as the number of cameras increased. “This indicates there were factors other than the course impacting violator behavior,” the DOT report finds.
Another complicating factor involved determining whether the owner of a vehicle was actually behind the wheel when a speeding or red light ticket was issued.
From the start of the program until March of this year, just 12 vehicles were seized, according to the transportation department. The Department of Finance told Gothamist an additional four were later seized.
“Despite the noble intent of the pilot program, DOT’s evaluation found the pilot’s effects on driver behavior to be underwhelming and its path to vehicle seizures to be convoluted, due to the city’s limited legal authority,” DOT spokesperson Vin Barone wrote in a statement.
The agency recommended ending the program because of the lack of clear results and the expense.
The classes cost about $1,000 per person or $1.6 million.
City Comptroller Brad Lander said the Department of Transportation “set the program up for failure.”
“We should not eliminate the one tool we have to hold accountable drivers who repeatedly violate traffic safety laws – but instead should be reauthorizing and strengthening DVAP as part of a broader, more ambitious program to address the plague of dangerous driving,” said Lander, who sponsored the dangerous vehicle law as a city councilmember.
While no new drivers will be required to take the class after Oct. 26, the city sent out 125 notices to vehicle owners this month. Classes will continue for another six months.
Selvena Brooks-Powers, who chairs the City Council’s transportation committee, said she would review the DOT report, which was supposed to be issued last month.
“Holding reckless drivers accountable and keeping our streets safe for all New Yorkers remains a priority,” she wrote in a statement.
The report recommended the state pass a bill that would suspend a driver’s registration for half a year if they get more than five red light or speeding tickets in 12 months.
State Sen. Andrew Gounardes introduced another bill this summer that would allow the state to put a speed governor on a vehicle that racks up six speed cameras or red light tickets in a 12-month period.
But it’s unclear if those bills would pass the state Assembly. This summer, the state Assembly failed to pass a widely supported bill that would allow the city to set its own speed limit.
This story has been updated with a quote from city Comptroller Brad Lander.
