Tell Governor Newsom to sign the red light camera bill, SB 720
A new report just released from our partners at Streets Are For Everyone includes a sobering finding: severe and fatal crashes at intersections have doubled in California in the past decade. San Francisco ranks the second-most dangerous county with a population larger than 750,000 for severe and fatal crashes at intersections.
We’re not wrong to feel more at risk on our streets these days. We are more at risk, and especially as vehicles grow bigger, heavier, more powerful, and more prevalent.
Walk SF is a long-time advocate for automated safety enforcement to address the most dangerous driving behaviors. It’s why we pushed for so many years for San Francisco to be able to use speed cameras here (they’re now at 33 locations). We have also advocated for years for more red light cameras. There are currently red light cameras at only 13 locations in San Francisco. Frustratingly, eight locations that the City committed to bring cameras to in 2020 are still not on our streets.
Running red lights is extremely dangerous. The crashes that result from red light running are likely to be severe or fatal because they are “right-angle” crashes (i.e. the victim is broadsided). I see drivers running red lights all the time these days, as I’m sure you do.
The good news is the California legislature has passed SB 720: a bill that creates an alternative approach to implementing red light camera programs that is needed now.
SB 720 mimics AB 645, the legislation passed in 2023 allowing speed cameras to be piloted in California. It includes important equity and privacy protections, and designed in a more efficient way and also designates any revenues to be used for safe streets projects. We believe SB 720 will reduce barriers for cities to use more red light cameras in order to take on what’s become disturbingly common dangerous behavior.
Walk SF supports SB 720 and is urging Governor Newsom to sign it. We need you to echo this message!
Governor Newsom only has until October 13 to sign SB 720. We must show that people are paying attention to this bill in the sea of hundreds on his desk. So please contact Governor Newsom now.
More on SB 720
SB 720 allows cities to opt into a new approach for a red light camera program that is markedly different from how the current California vehicle code for red light cameras is implemented.
Under the existing red light camera legislation (which SB 720 wouldn’t replace, but would be an alternative option to), fines are upwards of $500 and violations are criminal penalties; safety cameras take photos of license plates (not drivers), which means many citations are unenforceable because the driver can’t be identified; and revenues are not required to go towards street safety infrastructure. Overall, this leads to a program that is very financially and administratively burdensome for both parties, and can be viewed as punitive.
Under SB 720, a city’s red light camera program (should the city opt into it) would include: (1) capping fines for first-time violations at $100; (2) ticket and cite the vehicle, not the driver (making this a civil offense), by taking photos only of the license plate, and (3) mandating that revenues go directly to safe streets infrastructure. This makes it easier for cities to enforce and recoup funds, addresses privacy concerns regarding data collection and storage, eases the burden of high fines and includes scaled fines for low-income people, and ensures a more systems approach to traffic safety.
Banner Image: SFMTA
