Just Over Half of SF’s Speed Cameras Are Operational. What’s With the Slowdown?

Nearly two months after San Francisco installed the first of 33 speed safety cameras throughout the city, city transit officials told KQED there is no expected date for all the cameras to be made fully operational.

That means that the cameras will continue to issue $0 warning citations, instead of fines, for the foreseeable future, according to Shannon Hake, the Speed Safety Camera program manager for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

In a bid to make streets safer, San Francisco is attempting a five-year pilot of speed safety cameras after a 2023 bill — AB 645 — authorized six cities in the state to install cameras that automatically ticket drivers for speeding. Transit safety advocates have hailed the program as an effective tool to help reduce collisions on city streets. But delays are frustrating those same advocates who say there’s no time to waste in making streets safer.

Hake said the reason for the project’s uncertain completion date is due to a new permit process the city is undertaking with PG&E to hook up the new cameras.

“ This is the first time that any city in California is connecting speed cameras to an overall system. We’re excited, but that also means there’s no clear process for how to do this,” Hake said. “We’ve been working with PG&E very closely for months now to develop a process that makes sure that our cameras won’t overload their system.”

PG&E spokesperson Megan McFarland said that the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is requesting to install the cameras under a “wholesale distribution tariff,” as opposed to under retail service, and that requires extra steps to “ensure community safety.”

“These types of connections are not allowed under the wholesale distribution tariff. PG&E agreed to provide SFPUC with an exception to the wholesale tariff and allow SFPUC to apply for wholesale service for the speed cameras — while PG&E negotiates an agreement to expedite this process in the future,” McFarland said.

According to McFarland, PG&E has provided the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission with a list of requirements for the safe installation of cameras, including “submitting requests through their online portal and providing a badge number for which speed cameras will be installed on which assets.”

“Once we have this information, PG&E looks forward to proceeding with this project safely and efficiently,” McFarland said.

AB 645 mandates that newly installed cameras must give out $0 warning citations for at least 60 days before they begin to issue citations. Currently, just 18 of the system’s total 33 cameras are operational. The system launched on March 20 with 12 cameras.

Hake said the agency will wait until all 33 of the cameras pass the 60-day warning period before issuing citations to avoid potential confusion among drivers.

“ Our intent from the beginning of the program has always been to have one moment when every camera switches from the warning period to the citation period,” Hake said.

SFMTA has said that speed is the leading cause of death and serious injury on San Francisco’s streets, and that speed safety cameras are a “proven tool to address excessive speeding and reduce severe and fatal injury traffic collisions.”

Six pedestrians have been killed in San Francisco so far this year. One was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver in the city’s Bayview neighborhood this week.

Since 2014, San Francisco has had a goal of zero traffic deaths in the city, but 2024 was the deadliest year on city streets for nearly 2 decades, with the city recording 42 traffic fatalities that year.

“Every day these aren’t fully activated is painful because we know how high the stakes are,” said Jodie Medeiros, the executive director of Walk SF, “Speed kills. We desperately need speed cameras to start doing their job in reducing dangerous driver behavior and saving lives.”

Hake said the cameras are currently recording about 1,000 warnings a day.

“ The overall goal here is changing behavior. We’re not trying to issue citations,” Hake said. “So we see this warning period as an opportunity to just continue to spread the word,”

Once all cameras begin issuing citations, motorists caught driving 11 miles per hour to 15 miles per hour over the posted speed limit will receive a $50 citation.

Citations can reach up to $500 if a motorist is caught driving over 100 mph. In October of last year, SFMTA contracted Verra Mobility, a smart transportation company based in Mesa, Arizona, to install and maintain the cameras, as well as process the tickets issued by the cameras.

Hake said SFMTA is making progress towards getting all the cameras online. She said over the past week, the agency installed four additional cameras, and that they have preliminary approvals for eight more. Those should be up by the end of May, leaving the remaining cameras left to be installed in the single digits.

“ We know that this is life-saving technology and that every time we have a speed camera activated, it’s making the street around it much safer,” Hake said. “So we want all of our cameras to be online as quickly as we can.”