HARRISBURG — Rep. Ed Neilson, D-Philadelphia, majority chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has announced plans for legislation that would expand the use of speed cameras — which have been in use since 2020 in active work zones and on Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia.
The pilot program allowing the use of speed cameras was authorized by Act 86 of 2018 and this is the final year of the pilot program unless the legislature enacts legislation to make the program permanent.
Mr. Neilson, in a co-sponsor memo, said he intends to introduce legislation to keep the speed camera program in place and expand it to allow the use of speed cameras in school zones in Philadelphia and the use of stop-arm cameras on school buses statewide. Mr. Neilson’s legislation would also allow for the use of speed cameras on roads throughout Philadelphia.
“Automated enforcement programs in our state increase safety for motorists, pedestrians, maintenance workers, and even school children. Statistics show the success of such programs,” Mr. Neilson said in the memo.
Through 2022, the state’s traffic speed cameras have issued more than 1 million tickets — including almost 445,000 in 2022 alone.
Vehicles must be traveling 11 mph or more than the posted speed limit to get ticketed by the speed cameras.
More than 81% of the violations in 2022 were first offenses, which carry no monetary penalty. Second violations bring a $75 fine and a third and subsequent violations carry $150 fines.
There were 122,300 second-offense tickets issued by speed cameras from 2020-2022, including 57,094 in 2022. There were 53,008 tickets issued to drivers receiving their third or more violation from 2020 to 2022, including 25,473 in 2022.
Based on those numbers, the speed cameras would have generated just over $8 million in fine revenue in 2022 if all drivers cited had paid their fines. PennDOT says that 76% of drivers cited have paid their fines — amounting to $7.2 million in fines paid in 2022.
PennDOT says the speed cameras have been effective at slowing drivers down and reducing the number of crashes in work zones.
“The program has seen between a 15 to 50% reduction in the number of crashes when the unit is present versus when the unit is not present,” according to PennDOT’s annual report for the automated work zone speed enforcement program.
“During 2022’s primary construction months (April – October), speeding in AWZSE-enforced work zones has been reduced to 17.2% of all traffic, and excessive speeding (11+ mph over the posted speed limit) has been reduced to 2.6% since the start of the program,” the report said.
A separate analysis of the impact of the speed cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard found that while the number of crashes involving speeding and the number of fatal crashes citywide increased from 2020 to 2021, the number of speed-related crashes and fatal crashes on Roosevelt Boulevard decreased over the same period.
First Published: May 30, 2023, 4:56 p.m.
