Chicago’s latest money grab: 300 speed cameras could generate up to $4.3 billion in fines from local motorists
Cash-strapped Chicago is about to get an injection of money from motorists. The city is installing its controversial speed cameras at four neighborhood parks on Monday, and has plans for eight additional locations in the next few months. The city announced the results from a test of the new technology that showed surprising results. During a December trial,...
Cash-strapped Chicago is about to get an injection of money from motorists. The city is installing its controversial speed cameras at four neighborhood parks on Monday, and has plans for eight additional locations in the next few months.
The city announced the results from a test of the new technology that showed surprising results.
During a December trial, the two companies vying for the contract clocked more than 93,000 speeders at four locations. According to the Chicago Tribune:
The number of potential citations came as a surprise to even the city’s speed camera operator.
“I think everyone was shocked at the numbers,” said Charles Territo, a spokesman for American Traffic Solutions. “It became very obvious there is a speeding problem in school and park zones in the city of Chicago.”
Had tickets been issued for all of those test-period violations, the city could have collected about $4.7 million in ticket revenue in a single month.
The potential revenue windfall of operating 50 locations is huge.
The city plans to have 50 camera locations up and running by year’s end. If each of those locations sticks to the pattern the test cameras found, the city could rake in hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Here’s the math: Take the average of nearly $1.2 million per month at each location and multiply it by 12 months and 50 locations. The windfall doesn’t end there — state law allows Emanuel to install cameras at up to 300 locations in specially designated school and park zones.
City transportation officials put estimated first-year revenues at $40 million to $60 million, arguing that several factors will cut down on the number of tickets actually issued.
While city officials estimate that revenues won’t be nearly as much once the program starts, we can use the $1.2 million per month average as a very top-end estimate of what Chicago’s speed cameras could possibly generate. This $1.2 million per month at each location for 300 locations would generate $360 million per month for the city. And $360 million times 12 months is more than $4.3 billion.
The city describes that revenue projections will likely fall far short of $1.2 million per month at each location.
In addition, about 10 percent of the recorded violations are typically not enforceable for numerous reasons — the speeders were emergency vehicles, the license tags were obscured or there’s no child in the photo the camera takes in a school zone.
Beyond that, the city typically collects only 70 percent of the money from tickets that are issued because some drivers simply don’t pay up. Kubly also pointed out that the four test locations were chosen because of their high traffic volume. Others might not have so many cars pass through.
Additionally, drivers will likely start changing behavior once they start receiving tickets, but that doesn’t necessarily relate to fewer accidents in the streets. A professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago did a study of Chicago’s red-light camera program and found a 6 percent increase in accidents at Chicago’s red-light camera intersections. This was most likely due to an increase of rear-ending accidents caused by drivers who slam on their breaks erratically to avoid a red-light camera ticket.
In response to the prospect of receiving tickets from speed cameras, will Chicago’s drivers erratically change their driving habits and cause even more accidents in the future?
It remains to be seen if there will be a populist revolt in reaction to the speed cameras. If the cameras issue fines to motorists that come anywhere close to the projections, expect to see a significant backlash to the program.
The city of Chicago has yet to disclose how it plans to use the proceeds of the speed camera program. Most likely the revenues will not be used like they are in Queensland, Australia, which requires that all red-light camera revenues must be used for road safety purposes, such as road safety education, accident injury rehabilitation or engineering improvements on roads where accidents happen most frequently.
The fact that communities all over Illinois are not earmarking red light and speed camera revenue to improve traffic safety continues to encourage the belief the programs are about raising revenue from motorists – and not about safety.