A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to arterial roadway towing.

Int. No. 410

By Council Members Deutsch, Cumbo, Koslowitz and Johnson

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to arterial roadway towing.

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

      Section 1.  Title 14 of the administrative code of the city of New York is amended by adding a new section 14-155 to read as follows:

§14-155. Arterial Roadway Tow Program. 

a.  Definitions.  For the purposes of this section the following terms shall have the following means:

1. “Arterial roadways” shall mean all parkways, expressways, drives, highways, interstate routes, thruways, and bridges listed in subdivision i of section 4-07 of title 34 of the rules and regulations of the city of New York, or any rules or regulations promulgated to succeed such section;

2. “GPS tracking device” shall mean a device that communicates with global positioning satellites to determine the physical location of a vehicle and transmits such location to a remote server.

b.  Program Requirements. 

1.  The department shall administer a program for the towing of vehicles on arterial roadways pursuant to local law 58 of the year 1996 and to the traffic rules of the department of transportation.  Under such program, pursuant to the traffic rules of the department of transportation and section 20-520 of the administrative code of the city of New York, no person shall cause or permit a disabled vehicle to be towed from an arterial roadway except by a tow truck under permit issued by the commissioner of the department.

2.  Under such program, the commissioner of the department must issue permits to no less than two tow providers per arterial roadway, or segments thereof as determined by the commissioner of the department or the commissioner of the department of transportation.  The permitted tow providers for a particular arterial roadway shall be dispatched to remove a disabled vehicle from such arterial roadway after the department has determined which tow provider has an available tow vehicle that is nearest to the disabled vehicle, as determined by GPS tracking devices.

3.  Within six months of the enactment of the law creating this section, the commissioner of the department shall promulgate rules and regulations detailing the arterial towing program as he or she deems necessary to effectuate the purposes of this section. Such rules and regulations shall include but not be limited to:

(i) the minimum number of tow providers to be issued permits for each arterial roadway, or segment thereof as determined by the commissioner of the department or the commissioner of the department of transportation, which shall be no less than two tow providers per arterial roadway or segment thereof;

(ii) the criteria tow providers must meet to be eligible for a permit for the arterial towing program, including the details of the GPS tracking capabilities that a tow provider’s tow vehicles must be equipped with;

(iii) the details of how the department will utilize the GPS tracking capabilities to ensure that disabled vehicles on arterial roadways are towed by the permitted tow provider with a tow vehicle nearest to the disabled vehicle;

(iv) the details of how the department will ensure that a permitted tow provider with a tow vehicle nearest to a disabled vehicle will only be dispatched if such tow vehicle is available and not in the process of removing another disabled vehicle; and

(v) the details of how the department will dispatch permitted tow providers to disabled vehicles when location is either unable to be determined or when multiple permitted tow providers have tow vehicles equidistant from the disabled vehicle.

§2.  This local law shall take effect sixty days after its enactment into law.

CJG

LS 849

7/21/14