Traffic cameras earn D.C. $36.4M in '09 from speeders
By: Scott McCabe
Examiner Staff Writer
October 27, 2009
The District has raked in at least $36.4 million from nearly a half-million drivers in fiscal 2009 because of traffic cameras, almost double the amount two years ago, according to a study released Monday.
D.C. police collected $29.9 million from speed camera fines and $6.5 million from red-light cameras tickets in the first 11 months of the last budget year, according to a study by AAA Mid-Atlantic.
The report did not include amounts for the final month because the District was still counting the money at the time the study was conducted.
"The District is becoming one big Digitopolis, where tickets mailed, tickets paid and revenue collected continue to increase," said John B. Townsend II, of AAA Mid-Atlantic. "The program is a moneymaker for the District, and you don't have to be a cynical motorist to think that."
D.C. police spokeswoman Traci Hughes said the additional tickets were leading to a reduction in speed and red-light fatalities. Speed cameras change driver behavior and encourage drivers to obey traffic laws, she said.
"The primary purpose is not to generate revenue, but to save lives," Hughes said.
The District, which has about 60 fixed speed cameras around the city and 12 mobile speed cameras, has announced plans to add laser cameras to catch motorists speeding through tunnels in the city. Fines for speeding range from $30 to $200, depending on how many miles per hour over the posted speed limit the vehicle was traveling.
According to AAA's report, in the first 11 months of 2009, the District mailed out 489,892 speed-camera tickets compared with 251,642 two years ago. The nearly $30 million in speed-camera revenue in fiscal 2009 was $10 million more than in 2008.
The number of red-light camera tickets has jumped 22 percent in the last two years.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier caused an uproar this summer when she called the use of iPhone and Global Positioning System technology to alert drivers of traffic cameras a "cowardly tactic."
On Oct. 1, Maryland began allowing speed cameras statewide. Montgomery County has erected 60 cameras to fill budget gaps with the $29 million the cameras are expected to collect.
The Greater D.C. area has 290 red-light and speed cameras, according to estimates by a camera-tracking database called the POI Factory.
