Give us a brake!
As Mayor Bloomberg battles the state Senate for speed cameras around schools, lead-footed drivers are getting a free ride.
Several police precincts issued only a handful of speeding violations last year — with one station failing to write a single ticket, according to data from Transportation Alternatives.
An exclusive look at the advocacy group’s upcoming report shows police in the 14th Precinct of Midtown South gave out zero tickets.
Police in the 18th Precinct in Midtown North issued one ticket all year, while cops in one Upper West precinct doled out just four. The 83rd Precinct in Bushwick wrote eight tickets.
“Far too many speeding drivers are getting away with putting New Yorkers’ lives at risk,” said Michael Murphy, spokesman for Transportation Alternatives.
Last month, state lawmakers earned the ire of Mayor Bloomberg after failing to authorize 40 speed cameras for city school zones in the state budget.
In 2012, 274 people died in New York City traffic, up from 245 in 2011, and speeding caused a quarter of all fatalities. Yet only 10 of 74 precincts wrote more than one speeding ticket a day.
When Transportation Alternatives staffers took their radar guns around the city, they found NYPD enforcement not keeping up.
In East Elmhurst, police issued 177 speeding tickets all year, but the group found 237 drivers going 10 mph above the limit in an eight-hour span.
Midwood officers wrote 129 speeding tickets last year, while advocates found 30 speeders in two hours.
“The speed limit is barely and arbitrarily enforced in the city,” Murphy said.
The precincts with the fewest violations included Midtown, the Upper West Side, the Lower East Side and the East Village.
Each precinct has about five summons officers who issue parking and traffic violations, and only one is trained to use a radar gun, an NYPD supervisor told The Post.
“Speeding is not a main factor in accidents,” he said, adding that drunken driving and inattentive driving account for more accidents in areas like Midtown.
An NYPD spokeswoman told The Post speeding isn’t more of a priority because officers are deployed to other crimes.
She said Midtown and other congested areas clock fewer tickets because there aren’t as many opportunities to speed.
Speeding tickets issued by precinct in 2012:
MOST
Elmhurst, Queens 4,130
Central Bronx 1,649
South Shore, SI 1,353
Mid-Island, SI 1,165
North Shore, SI 943
Harlem 633
FEWEST
Midtown South 0
Midtown North 1
UpperWest Side 4
Midtown East 7
Bushwick 8
*Source: Transportation Alternatives
Additional reporting by Brad Hamilton