Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg unveiled a road safety plan Thursday promising to 'promote speed safety cameras' across the country, but a New York City councilman says the cameras in the city today are little more than an 'indirect tax on cars.'

Speed cameras in New York City went from 20 at the start of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio's first term in 2014 to about 1,400 across 750 school zones, Republican Councilman Joe Borelli said on Tucker Carlson Tonight on Tuesday.

Borelli argued that the Big Apple's streets are 'deadlier than ever.' Meanwhile, the cameras have generated about $215 million a year - or $25,000 an hour - for the city in the form of fines. 

Buttigieg's plan is raising the specter of ubiquitous automated traffic enforcement in the style of the UK, where the cameras are widely despised. 

Buttigieg's 42-page road safety plan that was unveiled on Thursday and is backed by $14 billion in funding from the new infrastructure bill contained only brief mention of the speed camera plan, but it was enough to set alarm bells ringing for worried motorists 

'It's certainly a tax on the middle class and poor people,' Borelli said. 'It's a war on the middle class, but it's also a war on drivers that I think you're seeing elsewhere in the country. This is sort of the states goal of most Democrats in power at this point.' 

Carlson warned that many of the drivers who would be affected by the speed cameras and associated fines are lower-income workers like Uber and delivery drivers.

Currently, eight US states have laws specifically prohibiting speed cameras. 

Only 18 states plus D.C. have speed cameras in use by law, with the other states having no law on the books authorizing their use.  

Buttigieg's 42-page road safety plan, which was unveiled on Thursday and is backed by $14 billion in funding from the new infrastructure bill, contained only brief mention of the speed camera plan, but it was enough to set alarm bells ringing for worried motorists.