Speeding remains one of the leading causes of traffic deaths in California. The Assembly Bill (AB) 645 Speed Safety Systems pilot program was designed to address it head-on. The bill authorizes a five-year pilot program to implement a predetermined number of automated speed cameras across six pilot cities (San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Glendale, Los Angeles, and Long Beach), along with Malibu, which was added to the bill a year later. With this program, the state created an opportunity to test a proven, life-saving tool already in use by cities across the nation, such as Seattle, Philadelphia, and New York.

Yet, as of today, implementation progress varies dramatically from city to city, and the delays continue to put the lives of residents and anyone who walks, bikes, or drives in the city at risk.

In 2023, after four years of work, SAFE successfully helped pass AB 645, the California Speed Safety Systems Pilot Program. This groundbreaking policy allows six cities across California—including three in Southern California (Glendale, Long Beach, and the City of Los Angeles)—to pilot speed safety systems designed to reduce speeding and improve conditions on high-injury corridors and in vulnerable areas such as school zones.

What makes AB 645 so groundbreaking is the careful balance built into the law: ensuring the systems effectively slow drivers without being overly burdensome with fines, requiring equitable placement, protecting privacy and transparency, and limiting use to locations where safety improvements are genuinely needed.

After years of advocating for speed cameras as a non-police method of enforcing speed laws, Streets Are For Everyone was thrilled this past October when Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 645, allowing Los Angeles, Glendale, Long Beach, San Francisco, and Oakland to pilot a speed camera safety pilot…