r/u_SteveVaccaroLaw

My public and private sources tell me the Super Speeder bill has won support from the Governor's office and legislature sufficient to win enactment substantially as proposed as part of the 2026 budget. While the devil will be in the details of the final bill as enacted, the hope is we will have speed governor devices mandatorily installed in vehicles caught speeding by camera-based enforcement systems if the vehicle was caught 16 or more times in a year, or if the owner was caught by in-person enforcement sufficient to put 11 points on their license.

The quid pro quos of this deal are in some cases unfortunate. The amnews report states that undet the compromise deal, a crash victim must prove the other person involved in a collision was 51% responsible to recover any fault-based compensation at all.

Picture a vulnerable road user like a pedestrian who enters a crosswalk admittedly without looking and is hit by a driver who isn't looking either; a jury verdict that the driver and pedestrian are each 50% responsible would mean the pedestrian hets nother and the druver wins 100%. While no-fault compensation would still be available, without the prospect of fault based compensation, there is as a practical matter no legal representation for the victim against the no-fault insurers, who routinely bully and cheat unrepresented crash victims out of the medical care they need.

Again, the exact terms of the deal will not be known until it is enacted as part of the budget, under NY's famously--and shamelessly--opaque lawmaking process and tradition. We'll have to keep our eye on this one.

But we should take a moment to celebrate the victims and advocates who have tirelessly and at great sacrifice brought the super speeder bill to the threshold of victory! It is much needed reform that will finally force habitually unsafe drivers to follow the law.

​

Please come to the Vaccaro Law + Veselka Restaurant Spring Social in the East Village this Thursday, 5/14, where you’ll hear a panel discussion on “Cycling in Mamdani’s New York” with Lucia Deng, Daniel Perez, Vince Rhino, Shabazz Stuart, and me! 

Our new Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has fulfilled some of our wildest dreams with cyclist-friendly street and policy changes that promise to transform our public space. Mamdani didn’t run on a "bike platform," but was elected with the endorsement and support of StreetsPAC, the cyclists and safe-streets political action committee we formed in 2013.  Turns out, Mayor Mamdani is a decade-old commuter cyclist who has fast-tracked many bike-friendly changes in his first 100 days, including:

 fixing the dangerous and unpleasant Manhattan ramp to the Williamsburg Bridge that stood for over a decade as a symbol of the City's disregard for cyclists;

calling off the heavy-handed Adams-Tisch policy of criminalizing biking tickets, an unfair policy that threatened cyclists with dire consequences for traffic violations not faced by drivers, and necessitated a major pro-bono effort to help cyclists sent to criminal court for traffic violations; and

implementing Sammy's Law to create 15 MPH speed zones around all our schools to be enforced with cameras and speed governor devices (fingers crossed) under the Stop Super-Speeders Act.

At the same time, there are some reasons for cyclists to be critical of the Mamdani administration, that will merit discussion this Thursday:

his administration apparently still supports a 15 MPH speed limit on non-motorized, pedal cyclists and perhaps citywide, even though our road cycling and and racing communities won a temporary restraining order against that measure;

while the Mayor lifted the criminal court diversion program against cyclists, we've not yet seen follow-through on his accompanying and welcome commitment to regulate delivery cyclists in a non-punitive way that's fair and ensures the safety of all;  

the administration dropped the ball on secure bike parking with a surprise and opaque decision to reject the most experienced vendor favored by the biking community, Oonee.

Join us and the discussion this Thursday!