Traffic cameras in Chicago fined drivers a total of $102 million in 2023, according to a new report.
The Illinois Policy Institute’s analysis discovered that the automated speed cameras placed throughout the city issued a ticket every 20 seconds, on average.
The cameras were brought online in 2013, and now number 169.
Since that time, they have generated $879 million for the city from 9,132,409 speeding tickets.
Speed cameras use a sensor system, such as radar, to bounce radio waves back off a vehicle and can determine if that object is moving faster than the posted speed limit. The camera system then takes a photo of the car’s license plate, and a ticket is sent back to the owner’s registered address.
According to the City, the number of speed-related crashes around the cameras dropped to 16% between 2012 and 2022, although speeding collisions citywide went up 22% in the same time period.
In 2017, a study on speed camera effectiveness conducted in Great Britain determined that drivers slowed to avoid fines at surveilled intersections and then sped up once they were out of the monitored zone.
The University of Illinois-Chicago conducted a study and concluded there was “little relationship between the number of tickets issued and the safety impact of cameras.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed to phase out speed cameras during his campaign, and his own motorcade was fined for $1,640 worth of traffic citations from the cameras, but his 2024 budget is counting on $348 million in fines, which is $46 million more than what was budgeted for in 2023.
