speed camera – Getting Around Sacramento

California Assembly Bill ‘AB-645: Vehicles: speed safety system pilot program‘ is going to be before the Assembly Appropriations Committee shortly. Though it breezed through the Assembly Transportation Committee, it faces challenges in Appropriations. Chair Rendon is rarely a supporter of safe streets, and has killed a lot of street safety bills in his committee, so it is important that the public make it clear how important this bill is.

Walk San Francisco is sponsoring a letter writing campaign to Anthony Rendon and Chris Herndon (as are many other organizations, you can check your favorite walking/bicycling advocacy organizations) at https://walksf.org/2023/05/04/the-speed-safety-camera-bill-ab-645-faces-its-next-hurdle-what-you-can-do-now/.

The bill would establish a pilot program in six cities. The City of Sacramento is not part of the pilot program (I think because the city did not request that it be), but the pilot results will be critical to implementing the program statewide. There are a tremendous number of privacy protections built into the program, far beyond those required for other motor vehicle code violations, but at least it stands to move forward in this legislative session.

Law enforcement has in the past opposed this legislation because it reduces the number of pretextual traffic stops they can make, though these stops often lead to the dead of motorists and even law enforcement officers. They apparently are not opposing this bill, at least not publicly.

Please check it out and support!

AB 550, by Assemblyman David Chui, would allow the use of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE, or speed cameras) in certain circumstances. I can’t point you to the language for specifics, since the legislative website has not been updated yet. You might call this a gut and amend bill, but since the original subject was ‘pedestrian safety’ it is really more of an amend.

The bill would establish a pilot program, which local transportation agencies could participate in. It would not start until July 2022, more than a year from now, in order for CalSTA (California State Transportation Agency) to develop an implementation plan. The program would rest with Caltrans and local transportation agencies, not with law enforcement agencies, which is a critical distinction to reduce the use of discriminatory pretext stops by law enforcement.

This legislation for ASE is a key component of the Vision Zero movement: “Managing speed to safe levels.”

It has long been my theory that most fatal crashes, whether the victim is a driver, passenger, walker or bicyclist, are caused by egregious speeders, drivers who travel more than 10 mph over the speed limit, the sort of people that CHP occasionally catches going 120 mph on the freeway, and is the same person driving 50 mph on a residential street. If that person is getting repeated automated speeding tickets, then they (he) can be targeted for more serious consequences like loss of freedom and loss of vehicle. Of course loss of vehicle probably requires other law changes, but this bill is at least a start.

When the bill language is available and hearing scheduled, I’ll post again. Keep an eye out here, or Streetsblog, or Twitter.

Streetsblog SF: Lawmaker Tries Again on Automated Speed Enforcement

Getting Around Sacramento

by foot, bicycle, and public transit (car-free!)

Tag: speed camera

support AB-645 speed camera bill

AB 550 allows speed cameras