Update on Implementation of AB 645 — Speed Camera Bill

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. 

The Process to Implement AB 645

The legislation went into effect on January 1st. The Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) is still developing preliminary recommendations to identify the 125 speed safety camera locations to reduce speeding and improve safety without disproportionately burdening low-income communities of color. 

Upon gathering the data, LADOT must formulate a community engagement strategy and launch a public information campaign. This ensures that each city council district has the opportunity to offer input on the intersections and streets that would benefit most from speed cameras. Before the speed camera program officially launches, the city must include a 60-day warning period for all speed violations. 

The five-year pilot program allows 125 speed camera systems only on high-injury networks (streets with the highest injury and death rates), school zones, and street-racing corridors. AB 645 states the cameras must be placed in geographically and socioeconomically diverse communities. As such, LADOT is required to place the cameras equally across all parts of the city. 

City Council members will have a say on whether or not they would like speed cameras and how many they want. Some may decide they don’t wish to have cameras, and others might opt for as many as they can. After getting community feedback, each district will decide how to use them to prevent speed-related crashes and injuries.

Once LADOT has a list of potential camera locations, the City will proceed with additional administrative steps to issue an RFP (Request for Proposal) for camera vendors. The City’s stated goal is to have cameras installed in January 2025. 

Our View on Speed Camera Implementation

The need to implement these speed cameras as fast as possible can’t be stressed enough. As a safety-focused non-profit, it's imperative for us to highlight the alarming statistics regarding road fatalities in Los Angeles. According to Police Department data, there have been 336 vehicle-related deaths in 2023, breaking the 300 mark for the second year in a row and the highest number of fatalities in over 20 years, which is how far our records reach. This was an increase of 8% from the previous year and a staggering 81% increase since the Vision Zero program was started in 2015 by then Mayor Garcetti. 

The data on the use of speed cameras proves that they result in shifts in driver behavior. According to the Federal Highway Administration, cameras reduce crashes on urban streets by 54%. Further, a global review of speed cameras by the NTSB found that the cameras were effective in reducing fatal collisions by a low of 17% to a high of 71%. New York City, Portland, Oregon, Washington DC, and many other cities have significantly reduced crashes, serious injuries, and fatalities by as much as 70% on roads where speed cameras were used. 

The requirement to spread them evenly across the city is good or bad, depending on who you talk to. Per SAFE’s latest report on traffic violence in Los Angeles, serious injuries and fatalities are not spread evenly throughout the city. Traffic fatalities are the worst in Council Districts 1, 14 and 15. 

At the same time, racial equity groups felt strongly about making sure that BPoC communities weren’t unfairly targeted by speed cameras, though they were the most heavily impacted by traffic violence, so the requirement was included in the structure of AB 645.  

For far too long, advocates have been advocating for improvements in street infrastructure, arguing that wide streets designed solely for cars promote speeding and increase the risk of crashes. It's clear that many of these tragic deaths could have been prevented with safer street design, and AB 645 requires that any profit from the program be invested back into safer infrastructure. This will be key to safeguarding lives with a looming fiscal deficit in the City of Los Angeles. 

As we move into the new year, we plan to be part of an educational campaign to bring awareness to the positive impact speed cameras will have on communities throughout Los Angeles. We also look forward to working with communities to ensure those that want speed cameras to save lives get them and those that don’t want them aren’t forced to have them. 

While we are hopeful about this new tool, we are also being realistic. With only 125 systems allowed across over 6600 miles of roads in the City of Los Angeles (and a few to a couple dozen allowed in Glendale and Long Beach), these will not be the magic solution to solve all the issues behind traffic violence. The fact remains they WILL help. We know where they are used, they will significantly reduce severe injuries and fatalities, and that’s important while other solutions are implemented as well.