A New Bill Could Address Street Racing Complaints In Bayside

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — Complaints of street racing increased in Bayside during the pandemic, and a new bill that seeks to cut down on so-called “drag racing” — sponsored by State Senator Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Nily Rozic, who represents Bayside — passed the state senate’s Transportation Committee on Monday, announced the legislators.

Of the 191 calls made to 311 about drag racing in March of this year about a third came from Queens, including seven complaints from the Bayside ZIP codes of 11361 and 11364 — more complaints than any other neighborhood in the borough, according to the data.

Five complaints came from the neighborhood's southernmost ZIP code of 11364, and two were reported from the 11361 ZIP code.

During the first four months of 2021, 15 complaints of speed racing have been made from the Bayside ZIP code of 11364, compared to 16 complaints from that same ZIP code during the entirety of 2020, according to the data.

Currently, the city’s speed camera program, surveils areas that have been identified as street racing hot spots between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on weekdays, but the new legislation would allow the cameras to operate at any time.

Of the seven complaints in Bayside, a vast majority were made when the speed cameras weren’t operating.

The proposed legislation, dubbed The Furious Act, would also expand the definition of street racing to include instances of racing that weren’t pre-planned, said the news release.

Up until this point some part of the race course needed to have been “planned” in order for an instance of speeding to count as “street racing,” but the more expansive definition of street racing would hold more racers accountable, the news release explained.

“Illegal street racing puts lives at risk and keeps us up at night,” wrote State Senator Hoylman in the news release, noting that complaints of speed racing have increased across the city amid the pandemic since streets have been empty.

“The FURIOUS Act will give the City more tools to catch drivers in the act and make it easier to enforce state laws on speed contests and races. New Yorkers have enough to deal with right now – it’s time to pump the brakes on illegal street racing,” he said.