Speed camera bill gets Assembly approval, now it’s up to Senate, Gov. Newsom

Cameras that can automatically send tickets to motorists who are speeding moved a big step closer to reaching city streets after the bill that would legalize such ticketing got state Assembly approval in late May by a wide margin.

Assembly Bill 645, authored by Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, authorizes “speed camera” pilot programs in school zones and on high-injury streets with speeding problems in five cities, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Glendale, Oakland and San Francisco.

Friedman’s bill was heavily backed in a 58-7 Assembly floor vote on May 31, and was introduced in the state Senate on June 1. The bill picked up both Democratic and Republican support.

The bill’s next hearing may be before the Senate Transportation Committee, but that had not yet been scheduled as of Friday, June 9, said Leoda Valenzuela, a spokesperson for Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.

If it goes to Senate Transportation, the bill must pass out of that committee by July 14 to stay alive. The bill requires approval of both houses and then a signature from Gov. Gavin Newsom to become law.

Speed cameras are illegal in California but are in use in many urban areas in other states. They have been credited with reducing the frequency of traffic collisions and decreasing traffic fatalities. Similar attempts at legalizing speed cameras have failed, but this time the bill was pared down to a pilot program for just five cities.

“I believe it is gaining momentum because, unfortunately, we’ve seen such a dramatic increase in deaths from traffic collisions involving speeding,” said Friedman on Friday, June 9.

Locally, supporters have been pushing for the bill to demonstrate what they believe would be an effective way to reverse the high death rates  from traffic collisions, in California, including fatalities of pedestrians and bicyclists. Supporters include the Los Angeles City Council, the city’s Department of Transportation, LAUSD, the California Transportation Agency, the Federal Highway Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and several safe-streets coalitions.

A person struck by a vehicle going 20 mph has a 5% chance of dying. Someone hit by a vehicle traveling 40 mph has an 80% chance of dying, according to statistics provided by SAFE.

“This (vote) is huge,” said Damian Kevitt, executive director of Streets Are For Everyone, a co-sponsor of the bill. “Anytime you have bipartisan support it shows a very strong support for this,” he said on Friday, June 9.

“It was good to see it is a bipartisan issue,” Friedman said.

In California, the pedestrian fatality rate is nearly 25% higher than the national average. In 2021 alone, 4,258 Californians died in traffic collisions, a 10.7% increase from the previous year.

Speed cameras in 140 other communities are attributed with reducing traffic collisions and resulting fatalities. In Scottsdale, Arizona and Portland, Oregon traffic fatalities have fallen 54% since the cameras were instituted. In Washington D.C, traffic fatalities decreased by 70%.

The bill has received opposition from varied organizations.

The American Civil Liberties Union wrote a letter to the Assembly Transportation Committee in April opposing the bill. They were joined by the Western States Trucking Association and the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC), the latter representing 78,000 public safety officers.

Strong opposition comes from PORAC, which opposes automation on the grounds that the speed cameras may replace law enforcement jobs, Friedman said in April. She added that she’s heard from local police personnel who favor the speed cameras.

Meanwhile, the ACLU wrote in April that cameras would increase government surveillance and raise serious privacy issues that could result in misused data. “There are all sorts of traffic mitigation measures that can be taken,” Brandon Greene, ACLU Northern California’s racial and economic justice program director, said in an interview on April 21.

SAFE’s online petition asking to “reign in reckless speeding in California” has received 1,859 virtual signatures.