NYC's Buses Will Soon Be Able to Ticket Bad Drivers for All Sorts of Violations

Photo: Cindy Ord / Staff (Getty Images)

If you want more people to use public transportation, it needs to be fast, frequent and reliable. Unfortunately for any city trying to make that happen, buses have to deal with one challenge that trains usually don’t: inconsiderate drivers. Sure, every now and then, someone parks their car on a set of train tracks, but it’s much more common for someone to park their car in front of a bus stop. New York thinks it has a solution, though, which involves letting buses ticket those inconsiderate drivers.

In case you missed it:

Hell Gate NYC reports that while New York currently has about 450 bus-mounted cameras that can ticket drivers who block the bus lane, the new state budget includes a provision that will both increase the number of cameras and allow buses to issue tickets for a wider range of offenses. As the article puts it, “Van blocking a bus stop? That’s a camera ticket. Truck blocking a bike lane? That’s a camera ticket. Crosswalk? Intersection? Ticket. Ticket.”

So far, even with limited enforcement abilities, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s bus-mounted camera ticketing system has already seen promising results. It has not only reduced crashes, but it’s also sped up bus routes. Expanding the list of violations that drivers are automatically ticketed for should only improve people’s quality of life. Especially since the police have no interest in stopping people from parking in bike lanes.

Sure, it will suck for the drivers who get ticketed, but who cares? They were the ones who chose to park like an ass in the first place. Making life worse for other people just because you can’t be bothered to pay for parking while you run into Starbucks should come with an automatic ticket. After all, it’s not like anyone’s forcing you to drive in Manhattan of all places. The only real disappointment here is that the buses won’t be able to vaporize cars that are in their way like the above tweet suggests.