Officials: Speed cameras effective in work zones
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A year after the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission used cameras to spot more than a quarter-million drivers speeding through construction zones, those agencies praised the system in a report to legislators and seek to strengthen the program.
Road crews repair and maintain the highway system that’s critical to the economy and everyday life, but they’re vulnerable while working. While concrete barriers and truck-mounted attenuators often buffer them from traffic, they’re sometimes protected by little more than the authority associated with a line of traffic cones. Since 1970, 89 PennDOT employees have died on the job.
The General Assembly authorized PennDOT and the turnpike commission to use speed cameras, and state officials say they are encouraged by the program’s early results. Drivers slowed down 5 to 8 mph on average in work zones with the cameras, according to the April 1 report. Crashes when the cameras were turned off during nonworking hours outnumbered crashes when the cameras were on, suggesting that speed enforcement played an important role, the
report found.
“Enforcement units are not only increasing safety for the workers active in the zone, but also for the motorists t r a v e l i n through these work zones,” according to the report.
Nevertheless, PennDOT, Pennsylvania State Police and the turnpike commission have asked lawmakers to consider strengthening the law, including creating new fees and giving PennDOT tools to go after drivers who don’t pay their fines.
State lawmakers had long debated using cameras to enforce speeding. Proponents argued it would improve road safety while freeing police to provide more pressing service. Critics dismissed it as a wanton cash grab by the state. In 2018, they hashed out a compromise.
Under Act 86 of 2018, speed cameras can be set up in construction zones under limited conditions. Drivers have to be given ample notice the cameras are in place, and violations can occur only during hours of gconstruction. Motorists can be penalized only if they’re going more than 10 mph over the posted speed limit, and only repeat offenders face fines.
Under the law, first-time offenders are issued a warning. A second-time violator will be mailed a $75 ticket. Drivers who continue to rack up violations will face a $150 fine for each new offense. None of the violations result in points being docked on a driver’s license.
The cameras were gradually rolled out in March 2020, and they caught 275,725 instances of speeding through construction zones by the end of the year. State police reviewed those images and issued 219,231 warnings and tickets. Extenuating circumstances — such as an improperly set up camera, a blocked view or the driver having diplomatic immunity — prevented tickets or warnings being written in 20.5% of cases, according to the report.
The cameras found that more than 28% of drivers who went through the construction zones were traveling faster than the speed limit, but only about 5% were going fast enough to earn a violation under Act 86. Still, early reactions among construction and state officials were positive.
“Feedback from field and project staff that have interfaced with the program has been overwhelmingly positive, with anecdotal statements that they observe motorist behavior changing when the enforcement units are present,” the report found.
Early results suggest that drivers are learning their lesson after a warning. Of the 219,231 violations state police could identify, only about 11.6% were committed by repeat offenders. Most people are skirting by without the fee, as lawmakers originally intended.
Those numbers have slipped a bit through 2021, but the overwhelming majority of people caught on camera speeding through construction zones aren’t paying fines. State police identified just over 167,000 violations through the end of May this year, and 83.6% of them resulted in a warning with no fine.
More options sought
Despite the progress, PennDOT, state police and the turnpike commission have asked lawmakers to make the law more punitive and to give PennDOT more powers to crack down on drivers who won’t pay their fines.
Even though most firsttime offenders haven’t committed a second offense, PennDOT officials said, the warnings were not a strong enough deterrent. The report issued to lawmakers called for new fines for firsttime offenders.
“A fine on a first-time violation is not meant to be a cash grab, but is meant to capture a driver’s attention immediately, getting them to slow down and increase safety in our work zones for everyone,” PennDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Kuntch said. “Data shows the warning violation doesn’t immediately change driver behavior.”
The report also sought harsher penalties for drivers going more than 20 mph above the posted speed limit. Similar laws are in place for traditional speed enforcement, where drivers face escalating penalties for going significantly over the speed limit.
Even when state police do write violators a ticket, the state has struggled to collect. Despite low traffic totals and a temporary halt of construction projects in 2020 due to the pandemic, repeat violators racked up about $2.7 million in fines. But as of April, about $1 million of that amount remain unpaid.
Under Act 86, the camera program has no way of cracking down on people who won’t pay their fines other than to hire a collection agency. However, PennDOT is requesting to prevent drivers who owe fines from renewing their vehicle registration until the fines are paid. The turnpike commission has similar powers for drivers who fall behind on their EZPass bills, the report noted.
For now, it seems lawmakers have little interest in adopting the report’s recommendations. Rep. Tim Hennessey, R-Chester, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, said he was unaware of any legislator pursuing the changes. Preventing people from renewing their vehicle registrations is particularly unappetizing after the hardships of the pandemic.
“In today’s economy, workers need to get to work. Losing their [ability to drive] can jeopardize their job or their family,” Mr. Hennessey said. “It would probably be met with some hardy debate if we tried to expand it.”
Any added fees could help the program break even. While some lawmakers during the 2018 debate viewed the program as a cash grab, the program lost $1.7 million in 2020. Ms. Kuntch said the financial aspect is not a consideration for PennDOT or the turnpike commission; ideally, the state would lose more through the program.
“The long-term goal for the program is to increase safety in our work zones, getting motorists to slow down and obey the work zone speed limit, resulting in no violations being issued, but we have a long way to go to get to that point,” she said.