Chief Rivera explains changed traffic landscape and micromobility enforcement
Chief Philip Rivera acknowledges the decline in Vision Zero summonses but cites a changed traffic landscape, micromobility growth, and increased seizures of motorcycles and mopeds. He says traffic enforcement remains overwhelmingly focused on cars and SUVs because they cause the most serious injuries and fatalities.
Morning.
Sorry, good morning.
So we do acknowledge the declining of Vision Zero summonses.
I do want to mention that our commitment to Vision Zero remains unchanged.
The traffic landscape in 2019, a reference to the report, changed significantly from what we see in 2025 or what we currently see in 2026.
As things change, we had to pivot and address traffic safety outcomes, changing travel patterns, new technology, and the department's wide enforcement responsibilities.
As we heard earlier in the testimony,
I just want to highlight a few things.
First is traffic fatalities and pedestrian safety.
That will always be our goal.
You heard you're in 2025.
We reported 210 traffic fatalities compared to 252 in 2024 and 220 in 2019.
When you look at pedestrian fatalities, again, you're to date through 1018.
That also dropped 73 versus 86.
We're concerned about our seniors.
That also we see a significant decline, 26 versus 41.
This places 2026 amongst the lowest year-to-date totals in the department's historical trends.
Again, when it comes to Vision Zero, our efforts are always centered around what we call the three E's, that's enforcement, engineering, and education.
Another pivot we had to do was the growth from 2019 to what we saw in 2025 and 2026.
And we talked about this a little at the last hearing, the growth of two motorized devices.
The landscape is totally different.
So post-pandemic growth in e-bikes, stand-up scooters, mopeds, motorcycles, and off-road vehicles required us to devote more attention to illegal vehicles and dangerous riding behavior.
So this, of course, on our end, enforcement, seizures, and inspections of retail, as we talked about this a little, retailers selling non-compliant devices.
Just very quick with data.
When you look at our two-wheel device enforcement, motorcycle seizures, again, comparing 2025 to 2019, motorcycle seizures in 2025, 5,567 versus 2,169 in 2020.
Moped seizures in 2025, 14,421 versus 1610 in 2019.
Motorcycle moving summonses, 57,090 versus...
Motorcycle moving summonses, 57,090 versus 23,942.
Moped moving summonses, 26,154 versus 1105 in year end 2019.
Traffic enforcement is focused overwhelmingly on cars and SUVs, as they are the biggest category in causing serious injuries and fatalities.
Year-to-date 2026, 81.2% of our moving enforcement is accounted to cars and SUVs.
When you look at 2025, micromobility enforcement, again, I mentioned at the last hearing, accounting for 10,115 e-bikes and 468 scooter moving violations.
Through September 21 of 2026, this is the point of sale initiatives,
63 stores inspected, 57 sea summonses issued, and we work closely with our partners in the DOT in identifying and preventing legal devices from entering our streets.
Another way in which we've pivoted also is automated enforcement.
an emphasis on reckless behavior, including ghost plates.
You talk about automated enforcement now supplements enforcement around the clock on city streets.
New York City speed cameras began operating 24-7 in August 2022.
And a network includes more than 2,200 cameras in 750 school speed zones.
As of October this year, red light cameras were expanded to 600 intersections.
These systems support consistent enforcement at locations where our offices can focus on driver behavior, such as reckless driving, suspended or revoked driving privileges, and fraudulent identification.
Data for reckless behavior, again, we're going to compare 25 to...
I know you're going to cut me off.
Yeah.
I know.
Okay.
You are saying that, sorry about that, Chief Obey.
You are saying that part of the decline in enforcement is due to an increase in micromobility enforcement.
But are many micromobility tickets considered Vision Zero summonses?
For example, a motorcycle moving violation is a Vision Zero summons.
So I just, the point here is to, because your question is why the drop?
As we saw changes, micromobility wasn't a big thing in 2019.
It's huge now in 2025 and 2026.
So it's a combination of micro-bullying enforcement, automated enforcement, and ghost plates.
We've seen a huge increase in those also.
We've also paid attention to pedestrian right-of-way collision injuries.
In right-of-way summonses and also old summonses.
So it's a combination of factors, high visibility to corridor.