NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A7996A
SPONSOR: Rozic TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in
relation to extending, in a city with a population of one million or
more, the bus rapid transit program; to amend part II of chapter 59 of
the laws of 2010, relating to establishing a bus rapid transit demon-
stration program to restrict the use of bus lanes by means of bus lane
photo devices, in relation to the effectiveness date thereof
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
This bill amends the Vehicle and Traffic Law and section 14 of Part II
of chapter 59 of the laws of 2010 to reauthorize the City of New York's
bus rapid transit demonstration program. It would also allow the City to
use bus lane photo devices to help enforce restrictions on the use of
designated bus rapid transit lanes by unauthorized motorists.
REASONS FOR SUPPORT:
New York City has the highest bus ridership in the United States, with
over three million passenger trips made daily. However, New York City
also has the slowest bus speeds in the country, with buses averaging
speeds of under eight miles per hour-and even slower speeds in congested
areas and at busy times of day. To improve bus service, the New York
City Department of Transportation (DOT) partnered with MTA New York City
Transit (NYCT) to collectively design and operate more efficient and
reliable service. By carefully applying certain elements, such as
frequent service, faster fare payment, and dedicated bus lanes, DOT and
NYCT created New York City's version of bus rapid transit, a part of
which is the City's Select Bus Service (SBS).
Since the launch of the first SBS route in 2008, DOT and NYCT have
successfully implemented seven SBS routes in the five boroughs-Fordham
Road, Webster Avenue, 1st and 2nd Avenues, 34th Street, 125th Street to
LaGuardia Airport, Nostrand and Rogers Avenues, and Hylan Boulevard.
These seven SBS corridors carry over 200,000 passengers across the City
daily - providing riders with faster and more reliable service. In the
summer of 2010, New York City was given legislative authorization to
operate a temporary bus rapid transit demonstration program that
utilizes a camera-based bus lane enforcement system, and the City began
operating the system in November 2010.
This program operates in much the same manner as the City's Red Light
Camera Program, which has successfully reduced the incidence of red
light violations. Technology is used to capture photos or videos of
vehicles that are in violation of the City's rules regarding bus lane
restrictions, which specifically restrict motor vehicles' ability to
stand, park or drive within a bus lane. The images are taken and used as
evidence in a proceeding to determine the liability of the owner of the
vehicle. The equipment consists of fixed-location units and mobile units
that can be moved around to various locations. The violations are treat-
ed as the equivalent of a parking ticket; therefore, no points are
assessed against the driver. By using camera-based enforcement we have
seen an average 10% increase in SBS corridor bus ridership and a 15% -
23% improvement in travel time for all SBS riders. However, the legisla-
tive authority for the demonstration program will expire in September
2015 pursuant to a sunset provision in the chapter law that originally
established it.
To ensure the continued success of the bus rapid transit program, it is
essential that designated bus lanes continue to remain free of unauthor-
ized motor vehicles. The current law only allows New York City to use
camera enforcement on five of the seven SBS routes currently in opera-
tion. On two of our routes, 125th Street to LaGuardia Airport and
Webster Avenue in the Bronx, we are unable to use bus lane camera
enforcement. The lack of camera enforcement reduces the effectiveness of
those routes, which are intended to serve as bus rapid transit lanes, as
well as any future rapid transit routes that NYCT and DOT plan to
launch. The proposed legislation would enhance the program's expansion
efforts by adding an additional ten bus lanes that can be camera-en-
forced, as well as a 60 day warning period on new routes. With the City
committing itself to establishing a total of twenty SBS routes by 2018,
it is imperative that the City's bus rapid transit program be expanded,
and that this program be granted continued authority to use a camera-
based enforcement system so as to ensure the unimpaired use of bus rapid
transit lanes by authorized vehicles only. This will, in turn, attract
new ridership, helping to meet the City's mobility, environmental, and
economic opportunity goals.
Accordingly, the Mayor urges the earliest possible favorable consider-
ation of this proposal by the Legislature.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7996--A
2015-2016 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
June 3, 2015
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ROZIC, HEVESI, KAVANAGH, SEPULVEDA, CRESPO,
O'DONNELL, BLAKE, QUART, SEAWRIGHT, LINARES, RODRIGUEZ, MOSLEY, DAVI-
LA, PICHARDO, BRENNAN, BENEDETTO, BROOK-KRASNY, GLICK, ROSENTHAL,
SIMON, LENTOL, WALKER, GOTTFRIED, DINOWITZ, JOYNER, ORTIZ, TITUS,
RICHARDSON, AUBRY, BICHOTTE -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Transportation -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to extending,
in a city with a population of one million or more, the bus rapid
transit program; to amend part II of chapter 59 of the laws of 2010,
relating to establishing a bus rapid transit demonstration program to
restrict the use of bus lanes by means of bus lane photo devices, in
relation to the effectiveness date thereof
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph 1 of subdivision (a) of section 1111-c of the
2 vehicle and traffic law, as added by section 9 of part II of chapter 59
3 of the laws of 2010, is amended to read as follows:
4 1. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the city of New York is
5 hereby authorized and empowered to establish a bus rapid transit [demon-
6 stration] program imposing monetary liability on the owner of a vehicle
7 for failure of an operator thereof to comply with bus lane restrictions
8 in such city in accordance with the provisions of this section. The New
9 York city department of transportation or applicable mass transit agen-
10 cy, for purposes of the implementation of such program, shall operate
11 bus lane photo devices only within designated bus lanes in such bus
12 rapid transit [demonstration] program [and on select bus service lanes
13 in such city]. Such bus lane photo devices may be stationary or mobile
14 and shall be activated at locations determined by such department of
15 transportation and/or on buses selected by such department of transpor-
16 tation in consultation with the applicable mass transit agency.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10971-18-5
A. 7996--A 2
1 § 2. Paragraph 4 of subdivision (a) of section 1111-c of the vehicle
2 and traffic law, as added by section 9 of part II of chapter 59 of the
3 laws of 2010, is amended to read as follows:
4 4. Within the city of New York, such bus lane photo devices shall only
5 be operated on designated bus lanes [that are select bus service lanes]
6 within the bus rapid transit [demonstration] program and only [during
7 weekdays] from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Warning notices of violation will
8 be issued during the first sixty days that bus lane photo devices are
9 operated on each route in the bus rapid transit program that is estab-
10 lished after June fifteenth, two thousand fifteen.
11 § 3. Subdivision (b) of section 1111-c of the vehicle and traffic law,
12 as added by section 9 of part II of chapter 59 of the laws of 2010, is
13 amended to read as follows:
14 (b) If the city of New York has established a bus rapid transit
15 [demonstration] program pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section, the
16 owner of a vehicle shall be liable for a penalty imposed pursuant to
17 this section if such vehicle was used or operated with the permission of
18 the owner, express or implied, in violation of any bus lane restrictions
19 that apply to routes within such [demonstration] program, and such
20 violation is evidenced by information obtained from a bus lane photo
21 device; provided however that no owner of a vehicle shall be liable for
22 a penalty imposed pursuant to this section where the operator of such
23 vehicle has been convicted of the underlying violation of any bus lane
24 restrictions.
25 § 4. Paragraphs 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of subdivision (c) of section 1111-c
26 of the vehicle and traffic law, paragraphs 3, 4, 5 and 6 as added by
27 section 9 of part II of chapter 59 of the laws of 2010, and paragraph 7
28 as amended by section 2 of part SS of chapter 57 of the laws of 2010,
29 are amended to read as follows:
30 3. "bus lane restrictions" shall mean restrictions on the use of
31 designated traffic lanes by vehicles other than buses imposed on routes
32 within a bus rapid transit [demonstration] program by local law and
33 signs erected by the department of transportation of a city that estab-
34 lishes such a [demonstration] program pursuant to this section.
35 4. "Bus Rapid Transit Phase I plan" shall mean the following five bus
36 rapid transit routes as designated by the New York city department of
37 transportation: Fordham Road, First/Second Avenue, Nostrand Avenue,
38 Thirty-Fourth Street, Hylan Boulevard, and an undesignated route in the
39 borough of Queens not to exceed ten miles. [For purposes of the Fordham
40 Road and First/Second Avenue routes, the authorization of this pilot
41 program is limited to the designated bus lanes as mapped and posted on
42 the official metropolitan transportation authority website as of June
43 seventeenth, two thousand ten. Such designated bus lanes shall not be
44 extended, shifted to another roadway or altered in any other way.
45 Provided, however, that nothing shall prohibit the alteration or addi-
46 tion of any bus stops within such mapped routes.
47 5. "select bus service lane" shall mean a designated bus lane that
48 includes upgraded signage, enhanced road markings, minimum bus stop
49 spacing, and may include off-board fare payment, traffic signal priority
50 for buses, and any other enhancement that increases bus speed or reli-
51 ability within the "Bus Rapid Transit Phase I" plan.
52 6] 5. "bus rapid transit [demonstration] program" shall mean [a pilot
53 program that operates exclusively on select bus service lanes within the
54 "Bus Rapid Transit Phase I" plan pursuant to this section. Provided,
55 however, to utilize a bus lane photo device pursuant to this program,
56 the roadway, except for the 34th Street and Nostrand Avenue bus rapid
A. 7996--A 3
1 transit routes, must have at least two lanes of traffic in the same
2 direction in addition to the select bus service lane] up to ten routes
3 designated by the New York city department of transportation in consul-
4 tation with the applicable mass transit agency, in addition to the Bus
5 Rapid Transit Phase I plan routes, that operate on designated bus lanes
6 and that may include upgraded signage, enhanced road markings, minimum
7 bus stop spacing, off-board fare payment, traffic signal priority for
8 buses, and any other enhancement that increases bus speed or
9 reliability.
10 [7] 6. "designated bus lane" shall mean a lane dedicated for the
11 exclusive use of buses with the exceptions allowed under 4-12(m) and
12 4-08(a)(3) of title 34 of the rules of the city of New York.
13 § 5. Subdivision (e) of section 1111-c of the vehicle and traffic law,
14 as added by section 9 of part II of chapter 59 of the laws of 2010, is
15 amended to read as follows:
16 (e) An owner liable for a violation of a bus lane restriction imposed
17 on any route within a bus rapid transit [demonstration] program shall be
18 liable for monetary penalties in accordance with a schedule of fines and
19 penalties promulgated by the parking violations bureau of the city of
20 New York; provided, however, that the monetary penalty for violating a
21 bus lane restriction shall not exceed one hundred fifteen dollars;
22 provided, further, that an owner shall be liable for an additional
23 penalty not to exceed twenty-five dollars for each violation for the
24 failure to respond to a notice of liability within the prescribed time
25 period.
26 § 6. The opening paragraph of section 14 of part II of chapter 59 of
27 the laws of 2010, relating to establishing a bus rapid transit demon-
28 stration program to restrict the use of bus lanes by means of bus lane
29 photo devices, is amended to read as follows:
30 This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have
31 become a law and shall expire [5] 10 years after such effective date
32 when upon such date the provisions of this act shall be deemed repealed;
33 and provided that any rules and regulations related to this act shall be
34 promulgated on or before such effective date, provided that:
35 § 7. This act shall take effect immediately; provided that the amend-
36 ments to section 1111-c of the vehicle and traffic law made by sections
37 one, two, three, four and five of this act shall not affect the repeal
38 of such section and shall be deemed repealed therewith.
