Speed Cameras: Less Speeding, Same Accidents
In 2009, officials said the program was needed to reduce traffic accidents and curb speeding. Speeds are down; accidents are not.
Police Report on Speed Cameras in Baltimore County.
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When Baltimore County officials rolled out a network of 15 speed cameras in school zones last year, they said the program’s success would be measured in two ways: less speeding and fewer accidents.
An analysis released last week of the program’s first five months shows a dramatic decline in speeding citations issued by the cameras, which are triggered by cars going more than 12 mph over the speed limit.
The report, however, shows no decline in accidents in those zones.
Still, county officials are declaring that the speed camera program is a success and the County Council is considering legislation to expand the number of cameras. The council holds a hearing on the issue today.
It would appear that reducing accidents — a key measure cited in 2009 when the program was being debated — is no longer a vital benchmark in determining success.
"The goal is to slow people down," said police spokesman Lt. Robert McCullough in response to questions about the lack of a decline in the accident rate.
In 2009, police Chief Jim Johnson and other county and state officials said the need for speed cameras in school zones was also driven by accidents.
During a public meeting at the Towson Public Library, Johnson told nearly 60 people that a police study of public and private school zones found nearly 1,800 accidents within a half-mile of the schools.
Del. Steve Lafferty, speaking at that same meeting, told the audience that speed cameras in school zones are “about protecting children and people who are crossing the street to schools."
"The issue here is safety," a different police spokesman said that same year.
The police at the time and today have not released statistics detailing pedestrian-involved accidents in school zones. McCullough said the accident statistics reviewed in the 27-page analysis included all accident types, but the report does not specify accidents involving pedestrians.
The police department’s speed camera analysis, released Friday, shows that speed citations issued by the cameras dropped 51.5 percent. The study based its finding on a comparison between the first week of the program in August when the cameras issued 4,180 tickets and the 2,100 tickets issued 19 weeks later in December.
Accidents showed no statistical change within a one-eighth and one-quarter mile radius of the cameras.
Ron Ely, founder and editor of the anti-speed camera website stopbigbrothermd.org, said police and other supporters are changing the definition of success in light of the report’s findings.
"Reducing speeds is a mean to an end," Ely said.
The original goal, Ely said, was making people safer by reducing accidents.
Councilman Tom Quirk, a Catonsville Democrat and sponsor of a bill that would allow the county to install as many speed cameras as it wants, praised the program's success.
"It's pretty clear that they work and that's why I think there shouldn't be a limit," Quirk said. "The big objective is to slow people down.”
Quirk downplayed the report’s accident statistics while linking the need for more cameras to pedestrian and bicyclist safety. The freshman councilman invited a reporter to take a tour along Edmondson Avenue and witness firsthand the speeds he said make it dangerous for residents in his own neighborhood.
"The big challenge is to start to build communities that are more walkable and bike-able," Quirk said. "Speed cameras are one component of that."
Nate Evans
10:05 pm on Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Baltimore City received $2 million through speed camera revenue that will be used specifically for road safety improvements. Most drivers speed because roads are designed 10-20 mph over the posted speed limit. Want drivers to slow down? Stop building our connector roads as speedways.
Edmondson Ave (mentioned in the article) is being reviewed for bike lanes. Not only will restriping the road with bike lanes encourage drivers to slow down (through visual traffic calming), but also create space for vulnerable road user, like cyclists.
Buzz Beeler
11:54 pm on Wednesday, February 2, 2011
This might incline one to ponder, despite what side of the issue your on.
http://bonehead.lerman.biz/php/FirebirdsWithoutWings.php
Sobering isn't it?
Sean Colin
4:35 am on Thursday, February 3, 2011
Why if speeding is soooooo awful, the demon of the road ways as portrayed, is the penalty for it so small? Could it be that it really isn't as much of a problem as we are told it is, if it were so bad, why pinch drivers into submission instead of punching them with higher fines, points, loss of drivers license etc?
If the state is so worried about actual speeding, then make the penalty for it more of a deterrent, if not, it shows these programs are there to generate money, not save lives-the police reports prove accidents have not gone down in the speed cameras locations.
Athan Sunderland
10:57 am on Thursday, February 3, 2011
Reading the comments here and on other related posts, it can be inferred that many of the concerns related to the use of speed cameras is the disclosure of intent. Would we respond differently as a community if the County's officials changed the way it promoted the program? For example, "Speed Cameras to be used to generate revenue for school repairs and expanding classrooms. Studies show that significant revenue can be generated by issuing tickets to hurried drivers with the use of speed cameras in targeted traffic zones. A marginal benefit of the program is a safer community and pro-pedestrian environment." Or will that only confirm our suspicions and allow us to focus our discussions to the program's morality? Or focus on our own morality? In any regard, I have read little support for the program as advertised regardless of the results it produces. The facts remain: 1. The county's need money to support their operations 2. Schools are becoming increasingly over-crowded and in need of capital 3. Using police man-hours to thwart speeding is not an option 4. Increasing direct taxes to cover the costs of Government is not desirable. We have problems to solve and using the same thinking that has led to our problems, to attempt to solve our problems, will not work. Within the cycles of problems and solutions exist opportunities. Where are the opportunities to become more efficient and create value? How do we identify and execute these opportunities? Is it leadership?
Sean Colin
6:33 pm on Thursday, February 3, 2011
Great response!!!!!
Michael Carnahan
10:08 am on Monday, February 7, 2011
The selfishness in the minds of people is amazing. So I think I’ll be selfish now too. I don’t care about a speed camera changing the number of accidents a half mile away. I care about it slowing down careless drivers in front of schools. I want my kids and all others to be safe in front of their schools. How can anyone with the slightest bit of intelligence think this is a revenue generator? Just read the Patch article about the revenue: the company controlling the cameras received nearly $1 Million of the more than $1.1 Million collected - not much of a revenue generator for the County. After I dropped my daughter off at school this morning, my son and I made our way back to the car. As I got in the car, a white SUV came speeding past me, squealed her wheels turning onto the main street of the school, and did the same pulling into the driveway of the . All this was in an effort to get her own child to school before the bell, even though she already missed the bell. Completely selfish and very dangerous. I wish our school had a camera, and I wish she got caught. Please put a camera at every school for the purpose of slowing drivers down in front of the school where the children are walking.
Buzz Beeler
1:18 pm on Monday, February 7, 2011
Michael, hard to argue with that, and the stupid and unnecessary ignorance of that driver propels today's agenda of its all about them and nothing else matters.
Sadly, you see it all the time.
Nelson Lowman
11:34 pm on Tuesday, February 8, 2011
This Speed Camara flack is going to grow.. we begged for speed bumps in my Cockeysville Neigh a few years ago, the County said no because it would hurt the snow plows...now they wrap themselves in the flag of public safety .... its money ... plain and simple
Sean Colin
4:18 pm on Monday, April 18, 2011
The white SUV's driver needs to be pulled over by a real policeman-not given a $40 sin tax ticket
Chris Cooke
7:24 am on Tuesday, April 19, 2011
One observation in this melee: if the speed is down but the accidents are not, I would presume that the accidents are at least less damaging, with fewer fatalities. Is this the case?