A year after the installation of speed cameras in San Francisco, drivers in the city are slowing down, data shows, and experts say the technology could have a similar effect once cameras are installed in Los Angeles.
According to a one-year analysis of data collected from San Francisco’s 33 camera locations and other traffic-sensing equipment, excessive speeding — defined as drivers going more than 10 mph above the speed limit — dropped nearly 80%. The number of repeat offenders dropped, too.
Roadway and urban engineering experts say San Francisco’s findings are on par with the success of other communities across the nation that have already implemented speed camera technology.
“The results are clear,” said San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie in a statement. “Drivers are changing their behavior.”
When Los Angeles finishes installing 125 cameras throughout its 15 districts by the end of July, the city hopes the implementation will leadto a similar significant reduction in speeding drivers . According to experts, here are some takeaways L.A. can glean from its Bay Area neighbor.
San Francisco’s one-year review
San Francisco and Los Angeles are just two of six California cities participating in a five-year pilot program that was authorized by a bill signed into law in 2023. The goal is to combat speeding and an alarming rise in traffic-related deaths by ticketing drivers going at least 10 mph over the speed limit.
San José, Oakland, Glendale and Long Beach are also participating. San Francisco is the first city to hit the one-year mark.
A fluctuating team of less than 15 people within the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency regularly collects and analyzes data from the speed cameras and other sensing equipment to further understand traffic patterns, track how many tickets are issued at any given camera location and how fast drivers are going, said Viktoriya Wise, director of streets for the agency.
They’ve found, at the one-year mark, that drivers traveling 10 mph or more above the posted speed limit went from 25% of all traffic to 6%. The number was even lower in the latest quarterly review — at just 2% of all drivers, the report stated.
Over the one-year period, the city transportation agency found that 65% of vehicle owners who had received either a warning or a citation did not reoffend, and 82% of drivers weren’t cited more than once or twice.
Speed camera success in other states
The latest data aligns with what’s happened in other states with speed cameras. One program in New York City was the subject of a study co-authored by Jingqin Gao, assistant director of research at the C2SMART Center, which studies urban transportation at New York University. She discovered that, generally, many speed cameras begin to achieve safety benefits within the first six months after their installation, as violations decline and tend to remain lower over time, indicating potential changes in driver behavior.
“A longer-term analysis using three years of data in New York City found that performance varies by location,” Gao said, “but in many cases, the majority of the cameras nearly curbed speeding behaviors within 1½ years.”
Over a five-year period, New York saw a 60% decline in motorists being cited more than twice, similar to San Francisco.
“These findings suggest there may be opportunities to evaluate how cameras are deployed over time,” she said, “including possible removal or reallocation.”
What San Francisco learned
As the San Francisco transportation agency collects data on the cameras’ effectiveness, it will zero in on locations with the most speeders and find other ways to slow drivers down, Wise said — a practice that Los Angeles could replicate.
Additional interventions include stenciled speed limits on the road, speed humps, red-light cameras, as well as partnerships with police and public health departments.
When it comes to reducing excessive speeding on the road, a multi-pronged attack is the way to go, said Wen Hu, a senior research transportation engineer for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The Virginia-based nonprofit evaluated a speed management pilot program on a rural stretch of road in Maryland, Hu said. There, the jurisdiction had enhanced police enforcement, installed a speed feedback radar and conducted public outreach. Together, those efforts resulted in a significant reduction in speeding, she said.
“This work is about protecting people, it’s not about generating revenue, and it’s not about punishing drivers,” said Julie Kirschbaum, director of transportation at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. “Speed is just such a key leading cause of severe injuries and fatalities that we are so grateful to the state to finally have this tool to make these meaningful changes, and even small reductions in somebody’s daily [driving] behavior saves lives.”
Next up for San Francisco’s program, with the one-year mark behind it, is another evaluation at the 18-month mark, when officials may consider relocating it.
What will happen to the program after the five-year pilot program is over is still up in the air.
There aren’t data or research on how long speed cameras should stay in place to maintain a reduction on speeding, Hu noted.
“We did a study to evaluate what happened after some of these large cities in the United States turned off their red-light camera programs,” she said. “We did find an increase in fatal crashes at signalized intersections in these cities after the cameras were turned off.”
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