The Department of Transportation Alternatives figurehead screws up speed camera negotiations

 

 NY Daily News 

An off-the-rails trip to Albany last week by city Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez put at risk the city’s push to run red light and speed cameras around the clock, according to DOT sources and lawmakers with knowledge of his meetings upstate.

Before the May 3 trip to the state capital, Rodriguez and DOT staffers had prepared to brief lawmakers on legislation to permit the city’s speed and red light cameras to issue tickets beyond the 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. window currently authorized by state law.

But Rodriguez went off script, DOT sources said, by pressing for even more speed and red light cameras across the city — a proposal that was previously floated by Transportation Department staffers and shot down by lawmakers.

“They prepped for extending the current cameras, not brand new ones,” said a source, who described Rodriguez’s trip to Albany as a “total f--- up.”

DOT staffers had already asked lawmakers for “home rule” for the city’s traffic camera program, which would allow the city to put as many eyes in the sky as they want without state approval.

Mayor Adams and Rodriguez have for months called for the provision, but legislators have made clear they don’t buy into the idea. It’s no secret that home rule for cameras was off the table weeks before Rodriguez’s visit, said a City Council official who asked not to be named.

But, to the surprise of lawmakers and his staffers, Rodriguez during his trip pushed for home rule for the camera program anyway, sources said.

Ydanis didn't go off script, he's doing what Danny Harris and his Transportation Scientology cult is telling him to say and do.