ALBANY - Here's a flashing yellow signal for drivers who run stop lights.
New York is poised to double the number of red-light cameras scattered around the city to 100 from 50, the Daily News has learned.
Last year, the 50 cameras snapped 338,000 photos of license plates on cars that sped through traffic signals, said a spokesman for state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Queens), who sponsored the measure.
At $105 a summons, that many tickets would add up to more than $35 million.
The new cameras are supported by the City Council and Mayor Bloomberg, who was hoping the additional revenue would help plug the city's budget gap.
But the bill in Albany needed to authorize them had been tied up in the Assembly, blocked in committee by Assemblyman David Gantt (D-Rochester).
Assemblyman Ivan Lafayette (D-Queens), who has been pushing his colleagues to authorize the cameras, said they should get the green light in September.
"It got caught up in all the politics at the end of the session, but the way is clear now because we have addressed all the concerns" of skeptics, he said.
The GOP-led Senate passed the legislation in June.
Three weeks ago, Lafayette issued an unusually tart statement blasting Gantt, chairman of the Assembly's Transportation Committee.
A frustrated Lafayette said then that Gantt "clearly does not believe in making the streets in the City of New York safer for motorists and pedestrians."
But Lafayette said yesterday that he and Gantt resolved their differences after he agreed to address civil liberties concerns.
For instance, the measure ensures the cameras will film cars only from the back and that caught-on-camera violations will not result in drivers getting tagged with points that could lead to a license suspension.
Gantt, who has publicly questioned the effectiveness of the cameras, could not be reached for comment.
A Harris poll last year found that 83% of Americans support the use of red-light cameras for traffic enforcement.
Nationally, running red lights is the leading cause of urban car crashes, resulting in 181,000 injuries and 880 fatalities in 2001, the most recent year for which statistics are available.
Traffic experts estimate the cameras cut red-light running by up to 70%.
According to figures on the city Department of Transportation's Web site, more than 1.4 million summonses have been issued because of the cameras since the program started in 1993. Only 7,000 people have beaten the tickets.
New York is poised to double the number of red-light cameras scattered around the city to 100 from 50, the Daily News has learned.
Last year, the 50 cameras snapped 338,000 photos of license plates on cars that sped through traffic signals, said a spokesman for state Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Queens), who sponsored the measure.
At $105 a summons, that many tickets would add up to more than $35 million.
The new cameras are supported by the City Council and Mayor Bloomberg, who was hoping the additional revenue would help plug the city's budget gap.
But the bill in Albany needed to authorize them had been tied up in the Assembly, blocked in committee by Assemblyman David Gantt (D-Rochester).
Assemblyman Ivan Lafayette (D-Queens), who has been pushing his colleagues to authorize the cameras, said they should get the green light in September.
"It got caught up in all the politics at the end of the session, but the way is clear now because we have addressed all the concerns" of skeptics, he said.
The GOP-led Senate passed the legislation in June.
Three weeks ago, Lafayette issued an unusually tart statement blasting Gantt, chairman of the Assembly's Transportation Committee.
A frustrated Lafayette said then that Gantt "clearly does not believe in making the streets in the City of New York safer for motorists and pedestrians."
But Lafayette said yesterday that he and Gantt resolved their differences after he agreed to address civil liberties concerns.
For instance, the measure ensures the cameras will film cars only from the back and that caught-on-camera violations will not result in drivers getting tagged with points that could lead to a license suspension.
Gantt, who has publicly questioned the effectiveness of the cameras, could not be reached for comment.
A Harris poll last year found that 83% of Americans support the use of red-light cameras for traffic enforcement.
Nationally, running red lights is the leading cause of urban car crashes, resulting in 181,000 injuries and 880 fatalities in 2001, the most recent year for which statistics are available.
Traffic experts estimate the cameras cut red-light running by up to 70%.
According to figures on the city Department of Transportation's Web site, more than 1.4 million summonses have been issued because of the cameras since the program started in 1993. Only 7,000 people have beaten the tickets.
