NYC now has red light cameras at 600 intersections, the most state law allows

New York City has finished installing red light cameras at 600 intersections across the five boroughs, the most it is allowed under state law, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn announced Wednesday.

That is four times the old limit. Before this year, cameras were allowed at only 150 intersections. After Albany raised the cap, the Department of Transportation began switching on new cameras in January, adding 50 intersections a week for the first five weeks, and set a goal of reaching 600 by the end of 2026, according to a January DOT release.

What the city says the cameras do

• Red light running: down more than 80% at camera locations, according to DOT data cited by the mayor's office.
• Injuries: injuries from rear-end crashes at camera intersections have fallen nearly 60% since installation, and injuries from T-bone crashes have fallen 70%.
• Why it matters: red light running was involved in 22% of fatal crashes at intersections from 2023 to 2025, the city said.
• Who gets tickets: in 2025, 95% of vehicles caught running red lights got no more than one or two violations, and fewer than 0.7% got five or more. Roughly 39% of violations go to vehicles registered outside New York City.

DOT picks camera locations using the crash history at each intersection, including T-bone crashes and injuries caused by drivers running red lights, the mayor's office said. Earlier this year the agency noted that vehicles with five or more red light violations in a year are more than 100 times more likely to be involved in a crash that kills or seriously injures someone.

"Red light cameras save lives and have proven to change driver behavior," Flynn said, pointing to a rise in red light running since the pandemic, ABC7 reported.

What comes next

The state legislature sets the cap, and the program comes up for reauthorization in the 2027 session. Transportation Alternatives executive director Ben Furnas said more than 10,000 signalized intersections in the city still have no camera, and that advocates will push Albany to expand the program to thousands more.

The announcement comes a day after a City Council hearing on cutting payouts in the city's citizen idling-complaint program, another enforcement tool that has grown fast.