Senator Tony Avella said he plans to reintroduce legislation in January that would keep neighborhoods safe from swarms of student drivers.
The lack of any official law or policy about where driving schools can teach their students has led to certain residential neighborhoods being overrun by excessive numbers of student drivers, all operating within the same residential areas because the streets are generally calmer than commercial areas.
Avella’s constituents have complained that the inexperienced drivers have scraped their cars, taken off their mirrors, and made them scared to park in their own neighborhood.
Many of these residential neighborhoods are densely populated with families and the sidewalks and crosswalks see significant pedestrian traffic. Having a large number of inexperienced drivers in one condensed area presents significant hazards to public safety, Avella says.
“Far too often neighborhoods are the victim of numerous driving schools simultaneously raining down on specific areas,” said Avella, D-Queens. “With the driving schools come a litany of problems for residents of New York, parking becomes more scarce, cars get ruined, and learning motorists have been spotted speeding through Queens neighborhoods.”
If signed into law, the bill would require driving schools to provide the Department of Motor Vehicles with information about where they plan to offer supervised driving instruction. The DMV Commissioner would then “prescribe such reasonable rules and regulations as he or she deems necessary to prevent the over saturation of such instruction within residential neighborhoods.”
The original bill (S.5386) was introduced in the 2015-2016 legislative session but was not brought to the Senate floor for a vote. There was no companion bill in the Assembly.
Avella hopes to generate more support for the bill this coming session.
“The time has come to regulate this industry to prevent the disturbances and hazardous conditions that these driving schools create,” Avella said.
