D.C.’s busiest speed camera in the last three months of 2023 was also one of its newest, according to Department of Transportation data shared with the D.C. Council.
From Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, the speed camera located along the northbound Potomac Freeway at 25th Street in Northwest issued 33,682 tickets. That’s the most citations given out by any D.C. Automated Traffic Enforcement camera of any type over that three-month period.
The camera’s relatively new, too. It issued warnings from Jan. 26, 2023 until around March 27, 2023. It started issuing citations the next day, a DDOT spokesman said.
Sharon Kershbaum, DDOT’s acting director, said the goal of the speed cameras is safety. The hope is that they deter speeding and change driver behavior.
“Speed cameras, which we’ve had for a number of years, work,” Kershbaum said. “We have been able to see demonstrable changes when we have speed cameras up.”
As of Jan. 17, there were 161 speed cameras in D.C., but that number is increasing. In late March, DDOT announced a new batch of speed and red-light cameras in various neighborhoods.
In the last three months of 2023, the camera on DC-295 near Exit 1 gave out 20,641 citations, according to city data.
The other locations in the top 15 over that span include a few stop sign cameras, too:
- New York Avenue, southwestbound at N Capitol Street Northeast — 19,041
- 2200 block K Street Northwest, westbound — 13,572
- 600 block Kenilworth Avenue Northeast, southbound — 13,281
- 600 block New York Avenue Northeast, westbound — 10,891
- 2200 block K Street Northwest, eastbound — 10,838
- 27th Street, northbound at R Street Southeast (Stop Sign Camera) — 7,805
- 2600 block Wisconsin Avenue Northwest, southbound — 6,924
- 3300 block New York Avenue Northeast, eastbound — 6,474
- 2200 block South Dakota Avenue Northeast, southeastbound — 5,975
- 200 block H Street Northeast, eastbound — 5,768
- 2800 block N Capitol Street Northwest, southbound — 5,761
- Kansas Avenue, northeastbound at Buchanan Street Northwest (Stop Sign Camera) — 5,441
- 1700 block N Capitol Street Northeast, northbound — 5,104
Usually, the agency places cameras in areas where there’s frequent speeding, Kershbaum said. After looking into fatal crashes in an area and gathering information from D.C. police, council members, advisory neighborhood commissioners and other residents, DDOT traffic safety engineers then move forward with a series of reviews.
The reviews include looking into bike and pedestrian infrastructure, as well as crash and speed data, according to Council documents.
Kershbaum pointed to the speed camera in the 4000 block of Wheeler Road in Southeast as an example of the program’s value. DDOT announced plans for a camera there in December 2021.
Initially, when it was up and running, the camera was giving out about 7,500 citations a month. A year and a half later, it’s giving out less than 300 a month, Kershbaum said.
“It’s been a 96% drop in terms of the number of speeding,” Kershbaum said. “So we started off with maybe 25% of the cars on that route speeding. There’s just been a huge drop. So speed cameras work.”
The cameras, though, do have limitations. For a small number of drivers, Kershbaum said, it’s difficult to get them to change their behaviors.
“The challenge with speed cameras and many other of our engineering solutions is that when you have drivers that are reckless or distracted, there’s only so much that the engineering tools can do,” Kershbaum said.
From October 2023 through Feb. 29, 2024, the city’s automated traffic enforcement program brought in almost $54 million in revenue, according to a memo from Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee, addressed to Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Kershbaum pushed back on the criticism that cameras are deployed with revenue in mind.
“Our goal is safety,” Kershbaum said. “Our goal is to change behavior. The fact that revenues get collected, it’s a positive externality, but that’s never been our motivation.”
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