STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The MTA’s bus-mounted automated enforcement cameras issued over 120,000 tickets citywide during the first eight-plus months of 2023, though only a small fraction of them were on Staten Island, where just one local route is equipped with cameras.
In recent years, the agency has installed Automated Bus Lane Enforcement (ABLE) cameras on the buses of 18 routes across the five boroughs, including the S79 SBS on Staten Island, which began issuing tickets to drivers illegally blocking city bus lanes late last year.
“Automated camera enforcement is a crucial part of speeding up buses and allowing riders to get to school, work, appointments and everything else the city has to offer,” New York City Transit Department of Buses Senior Vice President Frank Annicaro said in June. “These onboard cameras enable the MTA to enforce our bus lanes and is a proven and effective tool to increase compliance with the bus lanes.”
The cameras capture license plate information, photos and videos, along with location and timestamp information, which are sent to the Department of Transportation (DOT) for review and processing, with fines being issued by the Department of Finance (DOF).
Fines start at $50, escalating by an additional $50 with each subsequent offense, up to a maximum of $250 per violation.
The Staten Island Advance/SILive.com analyzed publicly available ticketing data on the city’s Open Data page to see how many bus-mounted camera violations were issued across New York City from Jan. 1 through Sept. 2, the last date currently available.
During that roughly eight-month span, the cameras issued 120,455 tickets across the five boroughs, with just 659 tickets, or 0.5%, being issued on Staten Island, according to city data.
The S79 SBS, the only Staten Island route equipped with the cameras, is a select bus service route that travels from the Staten Island Mall in New Springville to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, with the majority of the trip occurring along…
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