Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s new stricter speed camera rules start Monday and, if the early warnings are any indication, they’re looking expensive for Chicago drivers.
As the city prepares to start ticketing drivers in Chicago going as little as 6 mph over the posted speed limit, warnings mailed to people caught exceeding the new threshold show the change promises to be hugely lucrative for the city and a significant burden for residents already struggling to pay fines.
In the first week of the grace period that started in January, 52,498 warning notices were sent out, according to the Finance Department. The notices were intended to get people used to the fact they’re going to receive $35 tickets for being caught by any of more than 100 speed cameras around the city going from 6 to 9 mph too fast, according to the Finance Department.
Over a full year, such numbers would work out to over 2.7 million $35 tickets, with total revenue to the city of $95.5 million.
Under existing rules, cars caught by a camera going 10 mph over the limit get a $35 ticket, while those traveling 11 mph and up above the posted speed get tagged for a $100 fine.
Lightfoot has defended the change, which she included in her 2021 budget at a time she was looking for ways to close a $1.2 billion deficit, saying it’s a question of safety.
Critics have pointed out Lightfoot ran for mayor on a pledge to reduce the load of oppressive city fees, and questioned whether there’s a better way to make streets safer.
“One thing that came up when this was being discussed was that adjustments could be made to the cameras to do a better job of catching people who are breaking the law as it’s now set, rather than lowering the speed, changing the parameters,” North Side Ald. Maria Hadden, 49th, said when told of the number of warnings issued.
During debate over the proposed change last fall, Hadden said she worried the city was “nickeling and diming” Chicago drivers, and wondered whether it made more sense to do more enforcement on Lake Shore Drive.
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City Finance Department spokeswoman Kristen Cabanban said Friday the city will start the ticketing Monday in a “staggered manner,” because some drivers who got caught exceeding the 6-mph limit during the warning period have not yet received their warnings.
“Anyone who did not receive a warning during the 30-day period and then were subject to (automated speed enforcement tickets) for the first time will still receive a warning,” Cabanban said in a statement. “Those who received a warning during the 30-day period but the notice has not been sent out will be subject to the blackout period and will not receive a ticket for a repeat offense unless the original warning has been sent out at least two weeks before the next notice date.”
And with the available warning data pointing to more than 2.7 million tickets being issued annually under the new rules, Cabanban said the goal is not to cite drivers, but to promote safer driving. “In order to avoid a speeding violation, drivers simply have to observe the speed limit,” she said.
With the new speed rules set to kick off Monday, the Lightfoot administration this week characterized the move as part of its larger “Vision Zero” plan to reduce car crashes.
“With the impacts of COVID-19, Chicago and many other cities experienced reduced traffic volumes that were accompanied by a surge in speeding and traffic deaths. According to provisional data, 139 people died in traffic crashes in Chicago in 2020, 43 more than in 2019,” a news release read in part.
There also were fewer cars on Chicago streets to potentially exceed the speed limit during the week when the 52,498 warnings were issued.
And some automatic speed cameras in school zones around the city have been disconnected because the school campuses are closed due to the pandemic, meaning there will be more cameras potentially catching drivers as the city and schools reopen.
By Monday, city Department of Transportation spokesman Michael Claffey said, the city expects to have 140 cameras across Chicago tracking vehicle speeds. Another 21 cameras in high school speed zones will still be shut off, Claffey said.
The city speed camera statute has allowed for the $35 tickets for cars going 6 to 9 mph over the limit since former Mayor Rahm Emanuel created the system near parks and schools in 2013. The city has never enforced it, however, until now.
The speed camera program has been controversial from the moment Emanuel introduced it. He pitched the network of cameras to catch speeders around parks and schools as a way to keep children safe, but critics painted it as a cash grab, pointing out many of the cameras were only tenuously connected to Chicago Park District and Chicago Public Schools properties.
Chicago’s red-light cameras also have drawn blowback from officials and activists who argue they do little to make intersections safe. A Tribune-commissioned report found that at intersections with low rates of injury accidents the cameras may make things more dangerous.
Within months of taking office in 2019, Lightfoot shepherded through the City Council a series of reforms to the city’s fines-and-fees system that ended the practice of suspending the driver’s licenses of people who haven’t paid parking tickets, reduced vehicle sticker penalties and created a six-month payment plan to give those with ticket debt more time to pay.
Now, however, she wants to start ticketing drivers going just a few miles over the limit at a time many Chicagoans are struggling to make ends meet thanks to the economic fallout from the pandemic.
Twitter @_johnbyrne
