So far this year, 10 different municipalities in Prince George’s County, Maryland, have either adopted or plan to adopt the use of stop sign cameras.
But, they aren’t the first. Places such as Berwyn Heights, Colmar Manor and Morningside were among the early adopters of the technology, which aims to make intersections safer for pedestrians to cross.
In letter after letter sent to the county council this year asking for permission to install them — no matter which community wants to install them — the theme is always the same: too many drivers are blowing through stop signs without coming to a complete stop.
In Berwyn Heights, Mayor Tiffany Papanikolas said there’s been a noticeable shift in driver behavior since three cameras went live in the Maryland town back in March.
“It’s actually been very effective,” Papanikolas said. “We actually have seen a decrease in two of our sites … of 65% fewer infractions. And the one at … I believe our most dangerous intersection, that one has reduced by 70%, almost 80%.”
The solar-powered artificial intelligence cameras are run by the Obvio company, which said in a statement that the number of vehicles blowing through stop signs located in school zones dropped by 70% across five Prince George’s County communities.
Initially, about 6,000 cars per day were failing to stop where required.
Papanikolas said Berwyn Heights residents account for about 12% of the tickets issued by the cameras in their town.
“I would love to see them disappear,” she said. “This was not meant to be a permanent solution. It is — our goal is to kind of retrain ourselves, and to help educate and get people to stop not because they might get a ticket, but because they want to be safe, and that’s our ultimate goal.”
Prioritizing pedestrian safety
Pedestrian safety has long been a priority throughout Prince George’s County, which often leads the state in the number of fatal crashes involving pedestrians every year.
Before installing the cameras, some municipalities reported drivers would blow through stop signs without coming to a complete stop roughly 80% of the time, or more. The program gained momentum in the county after two kids were struck and killed while trying to cross the street on their walk to school in Riverdale.
“It’s needed in the county because we have people losing their lives,” said Prince George’s County Council member Wanika Fisher, who chaired a task force on pedestrian safety after the Riverdale crash.
“Prince George’s County wants to be No. 1, but we do not want to be No. 1 in pedestrian fatality, and that’s where we are. People are more likely to die on roadways here, in our county, than anywhere in the state of Maryland, and our municipal governments are finding ways to combat that locally.”
Violators who get caught running through a stop sign get a $40 ticket. Municipal police departments are required to review video of each infraction before tickets are mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle.
“I just recommend stop at a stop sign. It’s not worth it,” Fisher said.
‘Never about the money’
A spokesman for Obvio said around 40 of its cameras are currently in operation around the county, with no municipality deploying more than six at the moment. But several more intersections have been approved for stop sign cameras, with municipalities rotating cameras around as needed.
Some municipalities have also contracted their cameras out to other companies.
Municipalities that don’t have the cameras now have also at least taken them under consideration in recent months.
The city of Bowie, which does not have stop sign cameras on a permanent basis, conducted a trial of the program last year. In three of the five intersections studied, 85% or more of the vehicles that drove through didn’t come to complete stops.
And the way the law is written, any municipality that has these cameras have to earmark any revenue generated by the $40 tickets to specific pedestrian-related uses. In Berwyn Heights, that means speed bumps on some of the busier streets, to go with repainted road markers and even giant letters that say “stop” or “slow down” on certain roadways.
“I mean, it’s all about safety. For us, it was never about the money,” Papanikolas said.
“Our real purpose is just to get people to slow down. We don’t have a lot of sidewalks here in Berwyn Heights. We have — on the main streets we do. But where our children are walking and biking every day, there aren’t sidewalks. And, if you are not stopping at the stop sign, it makes it really dangerous.”
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