The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency is weighing a proposal to install 33 speed cameras across The City early next year in an effort to improve safety on its roads.
SFMTA staff recommended the plan to the agency Board of Directors during a meeting Tuesday, choosing to focus on areas with vulnerable road users, which they measured by looking at concentrations of schools, parks, senior service centers and commercial areas.
At least two cameras will be installed in all 11 supervisorial districts, with SFMTA staff noting that their recommendations were also based in part on where the most serious traffic accidents and deaths have occurred.
Some of the suggested intersections include the northbound direction of King Street from 4th to 5th streets, Fulton Street between Arguello Boulevard to 2nd Avenue and Bayshore Boulevard from the U.S. Highway 101 off-ramp to Tunnel Avenue.
All 33 locations have not yet been finalized, and factors limiting the proposed sites included the surrounding geography of a given area, if there is adequate spacing among traffic signals and whether or not drivers would have clear sight distance of the cameras. To ease the installation of the cameras, SFMTA staff identified city-owned street light poles that already have electric power.
Transportation officials’ push to install speed cameras follows the passage of California Assembly Bill 645, which went into effect this past January. Signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the bill allows six California cities, including San Francisco, to participate in a five-year pilot program.
“Speed is the No. 1 factor in severe and fatal crashes on our streets, and speed cameras are proven technology that reduces speeding,” Shannon Hake, the SFMTA’s speed safety camera program manager, said at Tuesday’s meeting. “We’ve been waiting for this opportunity for over a decade.”
AB 645 authorizes local transportation departments to establish their cities’ respective speed-safety programs, which would issue civil penalties, rather than moving violations, to a vehicle’s owner. After the 60-day warning period expires, speed penalties will be issued, with fines ranging from $50 to $200.
Rather than continuously monitoring city streets, staff working with the program noted that a radar would trigger the camera, which then takes a picture of a car’s license plate and not the driver.
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The number of cameras is limited based on each participating city’s population. The state law also specifies that there must be “measurable reductions in speeding behavior” for a city to keep a camera location after 18 months.
Numerous factors went into determining the proposed locations, SFMTA officials said. The agency had to consider whether streets had heightened infrastructure risks, such as uncontrolled crosswalks or wide street widths. Staff also used post-implementation reports on vehicle speeds to set up cameras in areas where engineering tools, such as speed humps and traffic signs, have not reduced speeds. They also gave greater consideration to neighborhoods with vulnerable road users and a history of speed-related collisions. SFMTA reports have found that speeding occurs near senior centers, health-care facilities, parks and schools.
“We wanted to use data to drive the selection process for these speed cameras, prioritizing them on the streets with the highest number of speeding vehicles located in the communities with the most at-risk San Franciscans,” Hake said.
Marta Lindsey, Walk San Francisco’s communications director, said during Tuesday’s meeting that “every tool possible on our streets is needed to protect us. Not just some, but all the tools.”
“The speed cameras are an opportunity for a broader reset of driver norms if they are paired with key actions,” she said. Such efforts would include lowering speed limits wherever possible, as well as implementing left-turn calming measures, speed humps and speed radars, Lindsey added.
Hake said that location-specific signage will be installed in both directions of traffic within 500 feet of a speed camera’s location in order to ensure drivers’ awareness. The goal of the program, she said, was to “broadcast loud and clear” where the cameras are to promote behavioral changes in drivers.
Additional signage would reinforce an area’s speed limit and warn drivers that the rule is photo-enforced. There will also be signs at major city entrances to let visitors know about the law.
The SFMTA will begin finalizing locations next month, with the goal of getting the project before the Board of Supervisors later this year. Agency officials said they hope to have a vendor secured later in 2024, and they also said they plan to begin educating residents about the installation of the technology. Enforcement will begin in early 2025.
