Slow Down, SoCal: Speed Cameras Are Coming to LA, Long Beach, Glendale

The streets are too fast and too furious, California lawmakers say.

Speed cameras will now be allowed under a pilot program that was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom this weekend, and they are going to cost speeding drivers as much as $500 per infraction.

Los Angeles, Long Beach and Glendale are the three cities in Southern California participating in the pilot. These cameras will be limited to streets in school zones, highway segments most prone to injuries, and areas identified by local authorities as having high volumes of speeders and street racing.

“For too long, we have referred to most of these deaths as 'accidents' to sweep under the rug the uncomfortable truth: these deaths are preventable,” Assembly member Laura Friedman of Burbank, one of the bill's authors, said in a statement. “Slowing cars down is imperative to saving lives.”

The cities join over 200 communities in 21 states that allow speed cameras, including New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

“Years of national research, the laws of physics and common sense all point to an established fact about street safety: the faster people drive, the more dangerous and deadly our roads become,” said the City of Los Angeles in a statement supporting the bill. “Speed is the number one factor in crash severity.”

New funding source for street safety

The tickets will be priced on a sliding scale depending on how fast drivers are speeding. The cameras will start ticketing drivers going 11 mph over the speed limit, which will cost speeders a $50 ticket. The penalties will go up to $500 for driving 100 mph or faster.

Similar to parking tickets, the automated tickets won’t count as points on drivers’ records. The cameras will also issue warnings if the first infraction is 11-15 mph over the speed limit. For the first 60 days of the pilot program, the cameras will also issue warning notices rather than tickets.

The revenue from tickets will be directed toward recouping the cost of the cameras and additional traffic-calming measures on the streets where speeding often occurs. These measures include bike lanes, medians and traffic circles.

The new law also specified that speed cameras will be shut down after 18 months if they don’t sufficiently reduce the overall speed or the number of repeat offenders.

Pushback from critics

Some advocates, including Human Rights Watch, have criticized the speed cameras for potentially targeting low-income communities and communities of color.

“[The bill] expands surveillance without any corresponding commitments to decreasing traditional policing of traffic enforcement,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “This will create overlapping, racially disparate enforcement schemes that risk the misuse and misappropriation of surveillance equipment. Communities need investments in public transportation and traffic calming infrastructure — not cameras — to keep them safe.”

Advocates for the bill have responded by saying that these same communities are also disproportionately affected by traffic deaths. One UCLA study found that Black pedestrians made up 18% of pedestrian deaths and 15% of cyclist deaths, despite being only 8.6% of the city’s population.

Speed cameras have reduced the number of crashes in some cities. One academic study in Chicago found that 70% of traffic cameras had a positive effect on the number of car-related deaths and injuries in the immediate area. The tickets generated $84.5 million in revenue for the city from 101 cameras.

The newly signed law allows California cities to issue fines on a sliding scale. Individuals under the federal poverty line can have their tickets reduced by 80%, with a maximum penalty of $100. They’ll also have the option to perform community service. For individuals making 250% or less of the poverty level, the fines will be reduced by half.

Speed offenders can prove their income by providing supporting documents, like pay stubs and bank statements.

Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose are also participating in the pilot program, which is slated to end in 2032. Mayors from all six cities in the pilot program supported the legislation, and it was unanimously supported by the L.A. City Council.