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According to Dylan Sharkey of the Illinois Policy Institute,
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is adding 50 new speed cameras
across the city, 27 of which are expected to begin issuing
tickets this month.
The city’s speed cameras issued more than $90 million worth of
fines in 2024, with $54 million in late fees accounting for more
than half the total.
Sharkey said this is not the progressive revenue the mayor
promised.
“Drivers in low-income communities who can’t shell out a ticket
on the spot and have to wait, they’re on the clock, and if
they’re living paycheck-to-paycheck, they get penalized just
because of their financial situation,” Sharkey said.
Sharkey said the city’s stated goals of helping with revenue and
safe driving compete against each other.
“If everyone tomorrow stops speeding, you’d get no money from
this and the budget would be worse off. On the flip side, if
everyone was going 40 miles an hour over the speed limit, the
streets would be less safe but the city would get more money,”
Sharkey said.
Chicago Alderman Anthony Beale said the system is broken.
“Mayor Johnson’s decision to add 50 new speed cameras is an
obvious revenue grab. Chicago’s speed cameras have increasingly
become about making the city money and not making the city
safer,” Beale said.
Beale suggested that the city council should undo the actions
taken under previous Mayor Lori Lightfoot and restore the
ticketing threshold to ten miles per hour above the limit.
Sharkey agreed and said the speed camera policies are not
targeting dangerous drivers.
“Someone who’s driving erratically, say 40 miles an hour over
the speed limit, they were always getting ticketed. This policy
doesn’t affect them. It affects the people who are driving six
miles an hour over the speed limit, you know, 26 in a 20. I
think no one has felt threatened by someone doing 26 in a 20,
but according to the city, you are Speed Racer,” Sharkey said.
Sharkey said there have been no signs of the mayor following
recommendations by Beale and more than a dozen other aldermen to
cut unnecessary expenditures from the city budget.
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