NYC's Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program Expires

by Mindy Cohn

NYC's Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program (DVAP), a 2020 program meant to hold repeat reckless drivers accountable, expired last week after accomplishing next to nothing in getting dangerous driving in check.

DVAP required those with at least five camera-issued red light tickets or fifteen speed camera tickets in one year to enroll in a driver accountability course or have their vehicle impounded. The course was intended to educate attendees about the potentially fatal consequences of their dangerous actions.

As the program expired on Thursday, October 26, City Comptroller Lander stated in a report that the DOT had "failed to implement the program as designed". Reasons given included that the program was enacted a year later than scheduled due to Covid. Lander also said that the City failed to utilize existing courses offered by the nonprofit Center for Justice Innovation and also "did not follow through on the legislated scale or key elements."

So, while tens of thousands of drivers should have been required to take the 90-minute course, DOT only informed 1,605 people they had to take the course during the program's two and a half-year history. Of those 1,605, half of the drivers were no-shows for the course. As a result, DOT took out only 159 warrants to seize vehicles, and after months of being issued the warrants, only twelve vehicles in total had been impounded over two and a half years.

In its post-program evaluation issues last month, DOT recommended that DVAP not be reauthorized following expiration given a number of reasons, none of which include their own ineptitude at administering the program. 

While program participants have been shown to have collected fewer tickets after completing the course, DOT's excuse for not crediting that data is the possibility that those results are due to the introduction of 24-hour camera enforcement across the City.