The East Hampton Village Board is considering using cameras on village roads that would photograph license plates of speeding vehicles and generate either a ticket or a warning that would be mailed to the vehicle’s owner.
At a board meeting on Friday, Marcos Baladron, the village administrator, said mobile units cost $29,000 each, and that the village was looking into purchasing three or four from Traffic Logix, the same company that sold them the temporary speed bumps for Highway Behind the Pond.
But their use, at least to issue tickets, would first need to be authorized by the State Legislature. “I’m willing to introduce legislation if it’s requested by the village board, but passage of any such bills is still a long shot at this point,” Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. said in a text. Mr. Thiele once attempted to pass legislation to use speed cameras on County Road 39, but it failed due to privacy concerns and opposition from police unions.
Suffolk County was once authorized to use them in school zones but the authority expired.
If the village were ever able to issue summonses from the cameras, they’d be like parking tickets, and would not count toward points on licenses. The speed cameras cannot determine the driver who is committing the infraction, but they do recognize repeat offenders, and fines could increase based on the number of tickets received.
The Covid era has seen an increase in traffic and issues borne from it, such as speeding. Municipalities, pushed by residents, are searching for solutions that include speed bumps, enhanced signage, more police enforcement, and now, speed cameras.
Their use was expanded in New York City in the summer of 2022, after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation allowing them to operate 24 hours a day, in 750 school zones. They’re working. A New York City Department of Transportation press release from this summer noted that a year later, “Speeding, injuries, and traffic fatalities declined in areas with speed cameras.”
Mr. Thiele said their use was currently being piloted in work zones in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. According to a Dec. 11 Newsday article, in the first six months of the pilot program, the cameras captured 41,709 violations, which represented more than 30 percent of tickets issued statewide, proof that indeed, people are driving too fast on Long Island relative to other areas in the state.
“We’ve been getting requests, I just got another one this morning, about speed humps,” said Mayor Jerry Larsen. “We have a huge problem in our community with our backroads being used as bypasses to avoid Route 27.”
Traffic apps like Waze push cars onto these side streets, which were not engineered to handle the amount of traffic they now receive, especially in the summer. The additional traffic creates dangerous situations for pedestrians and cyclists and erodes the quality of life for nearby residents.
“I’m not a fan of speed bumps,” said Chris Minardi, the deputy mayor. “There’s upkeep, there’s snowplowing, they’re loud. This seems like an opportunity.”
“It would make money and be effective, and it would change the way the traffic apps work,” Mayor Larsen said at the meeting. “It would keep people on the main road and our side streets would be safer.”
While the state works on legislation, he said the village could still employ the cameras, which would only be able to send warning letters, and not tickets, to violators. “It would give us a lot of data. We could find out what the average speed is on certain roads.” Mr. Baladron noted that the village planned to update its comprehensive plan in 2024, and that having that traffic data would be crucial.
In a separate phone call, Mr. Baladron said the village had 26 police officers, with usually four officers on each shift. “Say if we get a couple complaints about speeding on Fithian Lane. We may put a cop there for a few weeks, but once the cop leaves, the problem starts again.” His point was that using the mobile units would allow the village to cover a lot more ground on the enforcement front.
“Warnings, I think, are enough,” he said. “It’s really just to push people back onto the main roads.”
Jack Bartelme, a lieutenant in the East Hampton Village Police Department, said at the meeting that usually officers give drivers a few miles over the posted speed limit before they issue a ticket. Speed cameras can be set with specific allowances.
“People are not going to listen unless they get a ticket,” said Mr. Minardi, who seemed steadfastly in favor of the move.
“We can’t issue summonses until the state changes the legislation,” the mayor reminded him.
