Illinois House Approves Speeding Camera Legislation

Image Credit: -Tripp-

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's wish for speed enforcement cameras around parks and school zones took another step to realization yesterday after the Illinois House voted in favor of legislation that could cover nearly half of Chicago with surveillance cameras.

Emanuel praised the vote in a statement:

“I commend the Illinois House for their leadership in voting to protect our children around schools and parks,” said Emanuel. “This is another step in our comprehensive plan to protect our children from harm."

The mayor has framed his plan for speed enforcement cameras as an extension of the city's efforts to keep children safe. But The Expired Meter reported earlier this week the potential revenue that could be generated from the cameras could eclipse that of Chicago's red light cameras.

House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago) rounded up enough votes to pass the measure and also echoed Emanuel's sentiments the cameras were a child safety issue.

“We can protect our children. We can show a significant reduction in speeding. That’ll lead not to just fewer fatalities, but it’ll lead to a lot less serious injuries along the way...
“All the studies show us when you have strong enforcement … of the speeding laws, guess what: People slow down,” she said.

The legislation only needs Gov. Pat Quinn's signature to become law. A Quinn spokesperson said he would review the bill.

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By Chuck Sudo in News on November 10, 2011 8:10 AM 0 Comments

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tomdarch

In theory, speed cameras on regular streets could be an OK thing... In theory....

Let's leave aside the privacy issue. (Odds are, the time/day/place for your license plate number is going to be stored by this system every time you drive past a camera. Yeah, I know this sounds paranoid, but look up "mosaic theory" in relation to the United States v. Jones case (warrant-less GPS tracking) that was just heard by the Supreme Court.)

I think that a fair compromise to adding automated speed sensing and ticketing would be a requirement that the camera zones have a ton of warnings and signage. If the goal is actually safety, then posing a bunch of signs and potentially specially striping the roadway surface when entering a camera zone would all be part of modifying drivers' behavior to be more safe, right?

The other issue is the conditional nature of school speed zones. "Speed Limit 20 mph when the school is run by a left-handed principal and more than 18% of the students are shorter than 52 inches tall, when measured in street shoes" or some such thing. OK, ok, so it's more like "20 mph on school days when children are present" or something. First, who knows when a particular school is in session? And how is "when children are present" interpreted? If kids are playing inside the fence on the playground? If one kid is hiding behind a parked car on the street? How do these automated cameras handle sensing the presence of kids or tracking what are school days?