The citations will make Oakland the second Bay Area city, after San Francisco, to use automated speed cameras to fine speeding drivers, as part of a statewide effort to discourage dangerous driving and improve street safety.
The cameras will be in place for up to five years, per AB 645, a 2023 law which authorized six California cities — including San José, Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach — to pilot the camera systems.
“We’re on a quest for safer streets,” said Josh Rowan, the director of Oakland’s Department of Transportation. “ This is just one more tool for trying to get speeds down.”
The city has said speeding is one of the most common causes of severe and fatal crashes in Oakland. Oakland recorded 23 traffic fatalities last year, down from recent highs of 36 deaths in 2022 and 2020. Out of all transportation modes, pedestrians are consistently among the highest number of Oakland’s traffic victims.
At all but one location, drivers issued warnings by the cameras were traveling about 11 to 15 mph over the speed limit, the report showed. The exception was Foothill Boulevard, between 19th and 20th Avenue, where the speeding drivers traveled an average of 19 miles per hour over the speed limit.
The southbound-facing camera at 73rd Avenue between Krause Avenue and Fresno Street recorded the most speeders out of all the cameras, an average of 320 per day.
There are some bright spots in the data. Across all camera locations, just 1.5% of all drivers were issued warnings for speeding, according to the report.
“ We’re spending a lot of money dealing with crashes, infrastructure damage and safety issues that’s being caused by a very small subset of drivers,” Rowan said.
He said he expects the city to use the data from the speed camera program to inform where to make capital investments to city streets.
“ I think this will enable us to say, ‘this is an area that really needs attention,’ and if we can address it here, we can keep bending the crash curve downward,” Rowan said.
Across the water, San Francisco has reported that the cameras have been effective at reducing speeding at camera locations. In a sample study of 15 camera locations, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency reported a 72% reduction in speeding since the first cameras were activated last March.
