Speeders beware: Legislation would allow automation crackdown

Aiming to get drivers to hit the brakes, San Francisco Assemblyman David Chiu introduced legislation Wednesday that would allow San Francisco and San Jose to install cameras that detect when someone is speeding and ensure that a ticket is issued.

Speeding is the leading cause of pedestrian fatalities in the two cities, supporters said, and slowing traffic saves lives.

While cameras at controlled intersections that detect red-light runners are legal in California, cameras that nab speeders are not.

[...] attending were other families of people killed or severely injured when they were hit by cars, Mayors Ed Lee of San Francisco and Sam Liccardo of San Jose, and transportation and health officials along with San Francisco Police Chief William Scott.

In San Francisco, those streets include stretches of Market Street and Geary Boulevard, said Paul Rose, a spokesman for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

Traffic signs would be put in place warning drivers that speed cameras lurk ahead, and for the first 30 days after cameras are installed, drivers would be mailed warning tickets that do not include a fine.

Proponents say automated speed enforcement has slowed drivers and deaths from traffic collisions by impressive amounts: a 53 percent reduction in deaths in Portland, Ore., a 31 percent decline in speeding in Chicago, and a 13.4 percent decrease in injury accidents near cameras in New York.

Some motorists, however, worried that cameras won’t give drivers the benefit of the doubt and won’t understand that they might have accelerated to avoid an erratic driver or a double-parked truck, or in advance of a hill.

Past efforts have stalled in the Legislature after criticism from the American Automobile Association and the trucking industry.