L.A. City Is Installing Automated Speed Cameras
Today the Los Angeles City Transportation Department (LADOT) began installing automated speed cameras. The first cameras will begin issuing warning tickets starting October 26. After a 60-day warning period, the cameras will issue tickets costing $50 to $500, with higher fines for higher speeds.
Similar speed camera programs are also getting underway in Glendale, Long Beach, and Malibu.
LADOT celebrated today’s milestone with a press conference at the location of the first camera install – in front of Kingsley Elementary School in East Hollywood. Hopefully the cameras will have an impact. Before the conference, city staff, journalists and others scrambled to cross four lanes of fairly heavy fast-moving traffic there. Several times loud traffic noise drowned out parts of speakers’ statements.
City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, who represents the area, praised the speed cameras as “the biggest advancement in Los Angeles traffic safety in decades.” Soto-Martinez noted that “for the third year in a row, traffic violence killed more Angelenos than homicides” and that the “number one factor that leads to fatal crashes is the speed of the vehicle.”
U.S. Representative Laura Friedman, when she was a member of the State Assembly, led a multi-year effort to pass Assembly Bill 645 legislation which enables camera programs. AB 645 restricts camera locations and operations to ensure that camera programs meet safety, equity, and privacy aims. Noting that drivers only get fined after an initial warning, Friedman explained that, “these are not gotcha tickets.” Friedman continued, “if you’re going more than eleven miles an hour over the speed limit in a school zone, and if you’ve done it more than once, shame on you. You should be getting that ticket.”
Victims of traffic violence spoke of their tragedies and praised the life-saving cameras. Lili Trujillo founded Street Racing Kills after her daughter Valentina was killed in an 80 mph street racing crash. Trujillo spoke of speeding tickets not as “punishment” but as a “blessing.”
“If you ever get a ticket it’s a blessing,” Trujillo stated, “the biggest blessing you can ever have.” “Because why? You didn’t go to jail. You didn’t kill anyone. You are ok, not injured… You can fix your problem.” “It is meant to slow you down, to make you realize that you can come back home every day,” Trujillo urged, “because all of us want to come back home every day.”
After the speakers finished, city crews installed the city’s first speed camera, across from the school.
L.A. City is installing camera systems at 125 locations across the city. All locations will have warning signage noting the speed limit and that the limit is “camera enforced.”
Speeding ticket revenue does not go to the city’s general fund, but must be dedicated to improving street safety.
For more information on L.A. City speed cameras, see LADOT’s Speed Safety System webpage.
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