Friday, August 30, 2019

Salem Installs New Photo Speed Enforcement

Salem is extending photo red light enforcement to photo speed enforcement.

From the City of Salem:
Beginning September 1, motorists who exceed the speed limit while driving through high-volume intersections may be captured on camera and issued tickets. These new safety measures are designed to reduce crashes in and around intersections by encouraging drivers to slow down. Initially, Fisher Rd NE and Silverton Rd NE will have the new technology activated with other locations to be added at a later date....

Salem added photo enforcement cameras to three intersections in 2008. Since they were installed, Salem has seen a 92 percent decrease in traffic crashes at those locations. Later this year, the City will also add photo red-light cameras at Commercial and Madrona Ave. SE, Commercial Blvd. and Kuebler Blvd., and Center St and Hawthorne Ave NE.
A discussion this week in Willamette Week offers more detail on the reasons for photo speed enforcement:
Ray Thomas says the Portland Bureau of Transportation should erect speed cameras all over town.

"Fixed speed cameras are great," says Thomas, a lawyer who represents victims of car crashes. "They don't discriminate against any socioeconomic group or political profile and provide more deterrence than any other mechanism I know of."

PBOT agrees with him. In a report submitted this year, the bureau told state lawmakers, who greenlighted the cameras' installation in 2015, how well the cameras were working.

"Comparing the change among the 'before' speed study and the most recent speed counts, there is an overall 57 percent decrease in the number of cars traveling over the posted speed limit; [an] 85 percent decrease in numbers of drivers traveling more than 10 mph over the posted speed," the report said.
The other items in the City's press release have been mentioned here before, but this photo speed enforcement is new!

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