By Del Quentin Wilber, The Washington Post
D.C. police issued more than 400,000 tickets to motorists caught speeding by photo radar cameras last year and collected $24 million in fines -- the highest annual totals ever generated by the initiative.
Cameras captured the most speeders on Interstate 295, followed closely by New York Avenue in Northeast Washington, police statistics show. The camera on that major commuter thoroughfare has been a frequent target of critics who call it a speed trap designed to raise money, not promote safety.
Saying that the program prevents accidents and saves lives, police announced Friday that they are activating four new stationary photo radar cameras: on MacArthur Boulevard NW, 16th Street NW, Benning Road NE and Michigan Avenue NE. Police have one other stationary location, on Florida Avenue NE, and officers operate eight mobile photo radar devices in more than 70 zones throughout the city.
The expansion comes as the D.C. Council is preparing to revisit the contentious issue of automated traffic enforcement. In Virginia, the future of red light cameras is in doubt after a House committee rejected legislation Friday that would have extended permission to use them beyond July 1.
D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he called a hearing for Wednesday because he is concerned that photo radar cameras are not being deployed properly. Top city officials are expected to testify.
“I want to look at what we’re doing in terms of traffic enforcement,” Mendelson said. “I have a sense they are not doing the program as effectively as they could.”
The hearing also will focus on the District’s use of 39 red light cameras, which Mendelson and others have said are generally effective at reducing serious accidents.
Like the red light devices, which monitor intersections, the city’s photo radar cameras take pictures of violators. A private company, Affiliated Computer Systems, processes the violations. They then are reviewed by police officers who decide whether to issue tickets. Fines range from $30 to $200, and money generated goes to the District’s general fund.
Since the photo radar program started in 2001, the city has issued more than 1.2 million tickets and collected $68 million in fines. The red light camera program began in 1999 and has generated more than 500,000 tickets and $29.8 million in fines, statistics show.
Last year, photo radar cameras caught 698,636 violators, and the city issued 423,910 citations. Red light cameras caught 136,288 violators, resulting in 78,029 tickets.
Police said the number of citations is lower than the number of violations because officers cannot always make out images in the photographs clearly enough to identify the vehicles. Also, some cars do not have license tags.
The photo radar cameras have reduced speeding and aggressive driving in areas where they are used, according to police officials.
For example, 3 percent of cars were speeding in monitored zones in January. When the program started in August 2001, roughly 25 percent were speeding, police statistics show.
“Since we have deployed photo radar, we have seen a pretty steady reduction in the number of speed-related fatalities,” said Kevin Morison, a police spokesman.
The number of speed-related fatalities in the District has fallen steadily since 2001, along with total roadway deaths in the city.
Some council members and motor club officials said photo radar cameras should not be given so much credit for the drop in deaths. Many factors contribute to accidents, they said and noted that the number of fatalities has risen and fallen over the years.
In 2004, 17 of the 45 people who died on the city’s roadways were involved in accidents caused primarily by speeding, police said.
In 1998, 15 people died in speed-related accidents, statistics show. A year later, 16 were killed in speed-related wrecks.
Critics also questioned the locations chosen for the cameras and pointed to several places not known for fatal crashes.
For example, police cameras caught 59,222 speeders on MacArthur Boulevard NW last year. But the road has not had a speed-related crash in the past seven years, police statistics show.
In the four years before a camera began operating in the 2800 block of New York Avenue NE, near the National Arboretum, one person died in a speed-related crash on that stretch of roadway. Since the cameras were activated, one person has died in a speed-related wreck roughly five blocks east of the enforcement zone.
Lon Anderson, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said the statistics demonstrate the need to reevaluate where cameras are used.
He said the devices used in the New York Avenue zone - aimed at motorists leaving the city and accelerating for highways - are part of a speed trap. More than 103,000 violators were caught there last year, statistics show.
“It’s important [to know] whether this is a ‘gotcha’ game for greenbacks or whether we’re doing this for safety,” Anderson said. “And I don’t think we know.”
Anderson also questioned why so many people getting tickets are not D.C. residents. Last month, nearly 60 percent of violators were driving cars registered in Maryland, 10 percent were from Virginia and 25 percent were from the District, police statistics show.
“I think it’s politically astute not to ticket D.C. voters as long as the financial burden is falling on the suburbs,” Anderson said. “It’s more of a commuter tax.”
Police officials countered that the percentage of those caught speeding mirrors traffic patterns on D.C. streets.
The photo radar cameras, police said, are not solely targeting trouble spots for fatalities. They also are placed in response to neighborhood concerns, they said. The key point, they said, is that the cameras are catching traffic violators.
Outside experts have said that red light cameras increase the number of rear-end collisions but reduce more deadly side-impact crashes. Photo radar cameras appear to reduce aggressive driving and accidents, they said.
“It’s well-documented that photo radar can help reduce speed and help reduce speed-related crashes,” said Stephen Oesch, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which has studied the devices in the District. He is among witnesses scheduled to testify at the D.C. Council hearing.