The Brief

Camera systems shown to reduce speeding might not be operational in Los Angeles until the end of 2026, a transportation engineer told officials Wednesday, putting the city behind some of its peers throughout the state that are also piloting the technology.

Elected officials expressed frustration with the delay at an L.A. City Council transportation committee meeting.

“It has been about two years since we approved this, and we’re still talking about [requests for proposals],” L.A. City Councilmember Traci Park said. “I find that a little frustrating.”

In October 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation authorizing L.A. and five other California cities to pilot camera systems that cite speeding drivers on dangerous roads.

A representative for Streets Are For Everyone, a nonprofit also known as SAFE that sponsored the bill Newsom signed two years ago, said L.A. is falling behind on implementing its program.

“Our findings show that Los Angeles has currently only completed 25% of the required steps,” Brett Slaughenhaupt, SAFE’s director of L.A. County advocacy, said at the meeting.

What will the cameras do?

The cameras will capture the license plates of cars exceeding posted speed limits on certain corridors. That information will be used to mail tickets to the owner of the vehicle.

The number of cameras each city installs is based on population. L.A. is tasked with installing 125 cameras, the most of any of the participating cities.

The locations for the cameras will be selected based on where there are a lot of drivers that speed and where past attempts to make driving safer hasn’t resulted in “significant speeding reductions,” according to the report the Department of Transportation presented to city officials Wednesday.

School zones and street racing corridors will be prioritized, according to the report.

The owners of speeding vehicles will receive warnings for the first two months the cameras are active. Eventually, they'll be fined based on how much the car was observed exceeding the speed limit.

The purpose of the cameras is to help cities reduce speeding, which is the cause of nearly one-third of traffic fatalities, according to the Department of Transportation.

In L.A., 304 people in the city died in traffic fatalities last year, according to police data. An audit released in April found that lack of cohesion across departments and insufficient political support hampered the city’s goal of reducing traffic deaths to zero by this year.

What progress has L.A. made?

Chris Rider, a transportation engineer managing L.A.’s speed safety camera program, said that over the last two years, officials have been monitoring the progress of other pilot cities and honing in on the criteria that will be used to select locations for the cameras.

According to the report, the Department of Transportation hired a consultant in August to define policies around data retention, propose locations for the cameras and facilitate community engagement and public awareness about the program in the coming months.

The most updated timeline has L.A. activating its cameras, at the latest, by the end of 2026.

Achieving that timeline hinges on whether L.A. can “piggyback” or adopt the contract another pilot city has already signed with a camera system operator, Rider said.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Rider indicated that L.A. is looking to replicate Oakland’s proposed contract with Verra Mobility. A spokesperson for the city of Oakland told LAist that they're “hoping to get the contract signed ASAP, but don’t have a firm date.”

The pilot programs are authorized to run for five years or up until Jan. 1, 2032.

Where are the other cities in the process

San Francisco’s cameras have been operational since August.

Data on the number of tickets the city’s 33 cameras helped issue won’t be available until the end of September, according to a spokesperson for the city’s transportation agency.

Other cities are not far behind.

The spokesperson for Oakland said its 18 cameras are expected to be installed by the end of the year.

San Jose has identified potential camera locations, but its program has hit a snag. The city was going to use an $8.5 million grant from the Biden administration to fund its program. But the Trump administration updated the terms and conditions of that grant, as well as others focused on health and housing.

While a U.S. District Court judge in August granted a preliminary injunction blocking the administration’s actions, the money isn’t yet available.

“While our City Attorney's Office works on that issue, the speed camera program remains in a holding pattern,” said Colin Heyne, a public information officer for the city’s department of transportation. “We will work swiftly to award a contract, install the cameras, and start the program as soon as we have funding.”

Malibu Mayor Marianne Riggins said the five cameras the city is installing along Pacific Coast Highway will make pedestrians, cyclists and commuters safer.

“The City’s new speed safety citation camera system is one of the most important tools we have to slow drivers down and save lives on Pacific Coast Highway,” Riggins said to LAist in a statement.

Malibu officials said in an August meeting that it's targeting the end of the year for the installation of five cameras along Pacific Coast Highway.

Locations for Long Beach’s cameras have been identified and will be made public in October, according to a community information officer.

LAist reached out to the city of Glendale for a status update on its program.

If you’ve noticed more wildlife visiting your yard in recent years — maybe digging up your vegetable garden or even drinking from your pool — you’re not alone.

A recent study from UCLA found that larger predators like mountain lions and bears are more likely to interact with humans and travel closer to population centers in drier years. To determine this, the researchers analyzed state data collected on reported property damage, nuisances, conflicts and sightings.

“It kind of runs the full gamut of how people interact with wildlife around their neighborhoods and their homes,” said UCLA postdoctoral researcher Kendall Calhoun, the lead author on the study.

It's not just P-22. Mountain lions across the whole state are forced to leave their habitats for survival.

(

Courtesy Kendall Calhoun

)

Different motivations for different animals

As you might expect, different animals might have different reasons for entering populated areas. But in large part, Calhoun said, it comes down to animals’ survival instincts.

The primary motivator for many herbivores is likely to be food. That’s because with less precipitation, there’s also less plant material for them to eat. (Don’t forget: even with all the rain we’ve had recently, much of Southern California is still in a drought.)

“ Deer and elk might be pushed to find those food resources in places that they normally wouldn't go, like agriculture, crops, things from people's yards, persimmons from your tree,” Calhoun said.

And as herbivores get pushed toward humans, the animals that prey on them are too. In fact, the species that saw the highest increases in clashes with humans were omnivores and carnivores, specifically mountain lions, coyotes, black bears and bobcats.

But even these animals have varying reasons for getting close to people.

“Mountain lions might be more inclined to look for supplemental food in livestock — that might be a sheep or a goat,” Calhoun said. “Black bears may be more willing to go into your trash to look for food to help supplement what they're missing in their resource-scarce natural areas.”

Meanwhile, animals of all kinds might enter a yard even when they have enough food to look for standing water.

About the data

Researchers analyzed data from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife that were reported over the last several years as part of a citizen science initiative.

One important caveat is that the researchers primarily looked at conflicts between wildlife and residents, and there may be differences in how these interactions are reported.

For example, you might not report a deer eating fruit from an overloaded tree as a nuisance, but even a peaceful black bear digging through your trash could raise alarm bells.

 "People also really value having wildlife living alongside them," Calhoun said. "It really is important for us to try to strike that balance where there's pros for both sides, without some of the negative interactions that come with living in close proximity with wildlife species."

Learn more about human-wildlife interactions

There’s more background on the research on UCLA’s website, and you can find the full study here.

You can also learn much more about interactions between humans and wildlife in LAist’s Imperfect Paradise podcast series, “Lions, Coyotes, & Bears.”

Low-cost internet service will soon roll out in parts of L.A. County at the end of this year, and organizers say eligible households can sign up for alerts when the service becomes available.

The service — a partnership between L.A. County and internet provider WeLink — is the latest project from the county’s “Delete the Divide,” an initiative meant to bridge the digital divide in underserved neighborhoods.

Major funding for the project comes from the American Rescue Plan Act, as well as a grant from the California Public Utilities Commission.

It’s badly needed

About 23%, or more than 20,000, households in the East L.A. and Boyle Heights area don’t have home internet, according to Delete the Divide.

The service will also soon be coming to South L.A., where more than 40,000 households were identified as lacking home internet.

What you need to know

There will be different plans available — including low-income, market-rate and small business options — at fixed prices. The low-cost plan will start at $25 per month for qualifying families. Those who don’t qualify could also purchase plans starting at $65 a month. Monthly rates are fixed until at least September 2027.

Every plan includes unlimited data, a router and parental controls.

Low-cost internet service will soon roll out in South L.A. at the end of this year.

(

Courtesy of L.A. County

)

Low-cost internet service will soon roll out in parts of East L.A. and Boyle Heights at the end of this year.

(

Courtesy of L.A. County

)

How it works 

WeLink will install a Wi-Fi router inside a home and a 4-inch radio on the roof to connect the household to the internet.

Interested households can sign up for updates and be notified by WeLink when service is available here.