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 Chicago reported more fatal traffic accidents in
the first six months of 2022 than in any first six months since 2017, despite
speed cameras issuing over 1 million tickets – as many tickets as Chicago has
households.
An Illinois Policy Institute investigation found 72 Chicagoans died in traffic
collisions before July, 11 more than the previous record level reported for the
first six months of 2021. March 2021 is when Mayor Lori Lightfoot lowered the
ticketing threshold for city speed cameras to 6 mph over the limit in what she
said was an effort to improve safety.
Chicago aldermen are expected to vote July 20 on repealing the lower speed
camera limit over concerns it is disproportionately impacting low-income
residents without delivering the promised safety benefits. Creating a new fee
structure for speeding 6-10 mph by itself brought in $59 million last year,
prompting criticism that Lightfoot’s policy is about money rather than safety.
Two of those tickets went to Dr. Ramiro Gumucio – his first speeding fines in
three decades. He said the policy is punishing Chicagoans trying to make a fresh
start after the pandemic.
“Lightfoot’s policy fails to recognize that the pandemic and unprecedented
inflation has taken away the ability for many Chicagoans’ to earn a living,”
said Gumucio, who lives in the Sauganash neighborhood. “Now this policy is
punishing the same people that are trying to go out and just put food on their
tables.”
Lightfoot’s allies delayed an anticipated repeal of the policy on June 22,
allowing her time to pressure aldermen to keep the speed camera policy as is.
The full council is now set to vote July 20 on a proposal to return the speed
camera threshold to 1o mph.
The most recent data shows Chicago speed cameras fined motorists $36 million by
June 25, 2022. That was nearly as much ticket revenue as the city collected in
all 12 months of 2020, before the speed tolerance was lowered.
Of the $36 million in fines so far this year, two-thirds, or $23.7 million, came
from the $35 tickets Lightfoot approved issuing for driving 6 to 10 mph over the
limit. So far in 2022, Chicago speed cameras have issued a ticket every 14
seconds, generating over $207,000 a day in revenue for the city.
Lightfoot introduced her stricter speeding policy March 1, 2021, after the spike
in traffic fatalities during 2020. The lower ticketing threshold has faced
continual pushback from aldermen after reports found it doubled city ticket
revenues while failing to improve traffic safety.
City data shows traffic deaths in the first six months of 2022 were the highest
they had been for the same period back through 2017. The cameras were introduced
in 2013.
CBS Chicago investigators found fatal collisions increased near speed cameras in
the 12 months after the policy went into effect, despite ticketing rates
skyrocketing eight-fold.
And a University of Illinois-Chicago study commissioned by the city before
Lightfoot’s policy went into effect concluded there was “little relationship
between the number of tickets issued and the safety impact of cameras.
“A ticket isn’t life or death for the city, but for parents, that’s taking bread
out of the mouths of their children,” Gumucio said. He said as a physician, he’s
all too familiar with the results of traffic crashes and would support devices
that made streets safer.
Overall, researchers studying Chicago’s speed cameras from the period of 2015 to
2017 found mixed results on their ability to boost safety but clear indications
tickets disproportionately harmed the city low-income and minority residents.
While the data showed cameras generally reduced the expected number of severe
and fatal collisions around camera sites by 15%, the report also found 3 in 10
of these speed cameras did not improve safety.
In fact, the report showed 16 Chicago speed cameras were found to cause a
“marked” increase in collisions and suggested the city decommission the devices.
Lightfoot has decommissioned or relocated just five speed cameras since the
report was released in January. She has left at least 11 more danger-increasing
cameras in operation while simultaneously preaching her 6-10 mph tickets to
Chicagoans as a necessary sacrifice to reduce traffic deaths.
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The 11 speed cameras making roads more dangerous will generate an estimated $2.5
million for the city in 2022.
Even now as Lightfoot touts her stricter standards as imperative to “keep
communities safe,” the city has failed to produce any reports specifically
studying her lower limit that show the lucrative policy is improving safety.
A 2017 speed camera study in Great Britain found safety was highly localized
around intersections with speed cameras, but the number of collisions away from
monitored zones increased. Drivers abruptly slowed down to avoid fines, then
quickly sped up after passing the surveilled intersections.
An Arizona study found no effect on collisions from the cameras.
“Drivers are only forced to pay these tickets because there are deficits in
Chicago’s pension plans that are not being addressed by City Hall, let alone
lawmakers in the state,” Gumucio said. “That trickles down to affect the most
socially and economically disadvantaged Chicagoans.”
UIC researchers also concluded the economic burden of camera tickets followed a
stark racial pattern. Black and Latino households received a disproportionate
number of tickets compared to the rest of the city.
A corroborating report from ProPublica found Black and Latino residents
historically receive speed and red-light camera tickets at about twice the rate
of white residents.
Chicago Department of Finance data showed 40% of the city’s highest
revenue-generating speed cameras were on Chicago’s South Side, including two of
the four cameras that have already issued over $1 million in fines during the
first half of 2022.
“My biggest concern is for the marginalized Black and Brown Chicagoans who are
being most affected by this policy,” Gumucio said. “That person driving to a job
that pays minimum wage and might be late for work now has to take $35 from their
paycheck for driving at a speed that was acceptable just two years ago.”
Speed cameras hurt low-income Chicagoans more than higher-income drivers. The
UIC report found nearly half of tickets received by low-income residents incur
late fees and penalties before they are paid. That compares to just 17% for
upper-income drivers.
Late penalties drive up the cost of tickets, turning a $35 citation into an $85
fine. A $100 speeding violation can cost $244 if the payment is late.
Thinking of challenging a speed camera ticket? Gumucio said officers sent him to
the city’s Department of Finance and then to the Department of Transportation
for answers. He is still awaiting a response to his emails from early June.
“It’s ridiculous. My Freedom of Information requests have taken months and they
still haven’t told me anything,” Gumucio said. “Officers keeps telling me to
talk to the wrong departments. I last contacted them in June and still nothing
yet. I can’t even get the camera information the city tells me I have a right
to.”
While Lightfoot campaigned for mayor on the promise of reforming Chicago’s
addiction to nickel-and-diming low-income and minority residents, she recently
told the Chicago Sun-Times she is confident aldermen will keep her 6-10 mph
policy intact rather than create an $80-million budget hole.
She said a vote against her policy means a pre-election property tax hike on
Chicagoans to make up for lost revenues, telling reporters the revenue is “now
front-and-center on peoples’ minds.”
What should be “front-and-center” on the minds of Chicago’s elected leaders is
the city’s $46 billion in perpetually growing pension debt. Getting state
lawmakers to back a constitutional amendment allowing the state, Chicago and the
rest of Illinois’ nearly 9,000 government units to control the future growth of
pensions would be far more effective in curbing budget deficits than
nickel-and-diming residents.
Before the city council votes on repealing Lightfoot’s lower speed camera limit
July 20, Chicagoans can use Illinois Policy's Take Action tool to tell their
alderman how they feel about the cash cams.
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