One Camaro driver who enjoys speeding at more than 100 miles per hour on I-580 has a novel, James Bond-style trick to evade authorities, as this particular vehicle’s license plates are able to automatically disappear when the cops show up.

At about 8:20 am on this past Wednesday’s morning of New Year’s Eve, California Highway Patrol officers in Dublin observed a Chevy Camaro driving at speeds well over 100 miles per hour on Interstate 580. Naturally, they pursued the vehicle and gave chase. But the Camaro driver was able to leave those smokeys behind and eating his dust, not only because the driver simply sped away scot-free, but the vehicle eluded identification because the car was somehow equipped with disappearing license plates, according to KRON4.

“The license plate was black with yellow or white writing,” the California Highway Patrol’s Dublin office said in a Wednesday morning Facebook post not long after the unsuccessful chase.  “During the pursuit, the driver was able to ‘black out’ or ‘turn off’ the plate.”

Here’s a closer look at the license plate trick they are describing. Was this one of those new digital license plates, and is there some sort of nefarious hack to make these “go dark” if you’re being pursued by law enforcement? Or is this some sort of devious custom car modification for people who love lawbreaking? Either way, one has to wonder if this vehicle’s owner got the disappearing license plate capabilities to commit crimes much worse than speeding.

And it sure seems like the speeding perpetrator got away with it. The Highway Patrol’s Facebook post also says, “if you saw this and have information that will help us track down this vehicle, we would appreciate it!” Those do not sound like the words of a law enforcement agency that caught their suspect.

Anyone with information on this vehicle or this incident is asked to contact the California Highway Patrol Dublin Area Office at (925) 828-0466.

Related: CHP Pulls Over Speeding Driver on I-580, Finds 270 Pounds of Marijuana in Car [SFist]

Image: CHP - Dublin via Facebook

San Francisco has had 33 speed cameras catching drivers going too fast for nearly a year now, and Oakland is about to get 18 of their own speed cameras to be put up at their most notorious corners for traffic collisions.

Back in 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom started a program to install speed cameras to catch drivers speeding in cities like San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach. San Francisco’s speed camera program has already been up and running since this past March, and the cameras have been issuing fines to speeders since August.

Now those same speed cameras are coming to Oakland. KRON4 reports that Oakland is installing its own speed cameras, 18 of them citywide to be exact. The 18 cameras are expected to all be installed and operational by mid-January 2026, but they will only issue warnings at first. The cameras will start issuing cash-money fines to speeders a few months later.

“Citations are expected to start in spring 2026,” the Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT) said in a press release, according to KRON4. “Fines will start at $50 and increase to up to $500 for those traveling more than 100 mph.”

That sounds like the same fine structure as we’re using here in SF. That would be fines starting at $50 for those going 11-15 miles over the speed limit, $100 for those going 16-25 miles over the speed limit, $200 for those going more than 25 miles over the speed limit, and a $500 fine for anyone who somehow manages to be going more than 100 miles per hour over the speed limit.

Like the City of San Francisco, the City of Oakland is being completely up front about where they are placing these cameras, as their goal is to get drivers to slow down and not incur any fines.

The locations of the Oakland speed cameras can be seen on the map above. These locations are described as the “high injury network,” that is, the 8% of Oakland street intersections that manage to account for 60% of the city’s fatal and/or very severe traffic collisions.

Related: Those New SF Speed Cameras Are Catching 1,000 Speeders Every Day, Most on Fulton Street [SFist]

Image: SFMTA

After pausing new requests through its popular Residential Traffic Calming Program in June, SFMTA will begin fulfilling its blacklog next week with the installation of speed humps and other traffic-calming measures at 141 locations, a large portion on the city’s westside.

As NBC Bay Area reports, the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency will begin honoring its blacklog of speed-reduction requests next week as part of its popular Residential Traffic Calming Program, which was listed as a priority in the recently signed Street Safety Act, per Walk San Francisco. Launched in 2001, the traffic-calming program collects feedback from communities where speeding is a concern. Per the Frisc, the queue for the program currently consists of hundreds of applications dating back to 2021.  

“Our Traffic Calming Program is resident driven,” per SFMTA. “When neighbors tell us they’re worried about speeding on their block, we listen. We collect data to confirm there’s a speeding problem, and then we take action.”

Per KRON4, the installation is expected to be completed by February, weather permitting, with each location taking two days. The agency notes that residents near the 141 locations should have received a postcard about the project in the mail. The devices to be installed during this phase include speed humps, speed cushions, and speed tables.

Walk SF's website provides more details on the three types of traffic-calming devices. “Speed humps and tables are one of the most powerful tools available to reinforce safe speeds, plus they’re cost-effective and durable. Speed humps, tables, and cushions are all ‘vertical speed reducers,’” Walk SF explains. “Speed humps are rounded; speed tables have a flat top; and speed cushions are speed humps with wheel cutouts designed to allow large vehicles, such as fire trucks and buses, to pass with minimal slowing or rocking.”

Marta Lindsey, communications director at Walk SF, tells NBC Bay Area in the below video segment that traffic-calming strategies are in high demand on San Francisco streets. “These are proven to work. They're one of the cheapest, best solutions out there,” Linsey told NBC Bay Area. “So, it is fantastic that the city’s about to get a big surge of these. And we’re going to need more.”

SFMTA notes that 14 additional locations will be receiving traffic-calming devices in the spring under a second contract with more details to come.

Per the Frisc, eligible locations for the program must be residential streets with less than 7,500 cars per day at speed thresholds of 85 percent or higher (the percentage of vehicles exceeding the speed limit by 5 mph or more). Whether or not locations have any nearby bus stops or hospitals are also factors taken into consideration.

SFMTA was awarded a $6.9 million grant in July to help the agency complete its backlog, while also stipulating that the agency create a new traffic-calming plan by the end of the year, per the Frisc.

The Frisc spoke to Robin Pam, executive director of  Streets for All SF, who’s pushing SFMTA to return to its old method of installing traffic-calming devices in entire neighborhoods — especially those in underserved communities — rather than street-by-street, like Boston recently did.

Pam tells the Frisc the current request-based system is problematic because areas with residents who have more time on their hands to fill out applications and rally neighbors are the ones whose requests are getting filled. Per the Frisc, almost half the total traffic-calming devices are being installed in the city’s westside neighborhoods, including the Sunset, the Richmond, and West Portal during this phase. By contrast, neighborhoods such as Excelsior, SoMa, and Cow Hollow are only getting one or two installations.

“It’s not fair for the loudest, most connected people to get speed humps while others don’t,” Pam told the Frisc.

Pam is encouraging residents who live near one of the new locations to install one of Streets For All SF’s 20 Telraam traffic sensors, which the group is using to collect data on vehicle volume and speed once the calming devices are installed.

Now a few months into the speed-camera era of San Francisco traffic enforcement, the most notorious block for speeding covered by the cameras is at Third and Bryant streets, which accounts for nearly 25% of all SF speed camera tickets.

When San Francisco’s new speed limit enforcement cameras started taking pictures of scofflaw, lead-foot drivers in March of this year, the first batch of data showed that the block where the cameras were catching the most speeders was at Fulton Street between Arguello Street and 40th Avenue in the Outer Richmond. But that first batch of data was from April, before all 56 cameras in the speed camera system were up and running. As of August 5, all of those speed cameras are now up and running.

With the full new network of cameras now snapping pictures of vehicles exceeding the speed limit, we have a new block where the largest number of speeders is being nabbed. The Chronicle sifted through SF Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) data, and found that the largest number of camera-issued speeding tickets is coming from Third and Bryant streets, or rather, the block of Bryant between Second and Third streets.  

That data is from August, the (nearly) first full month that the cameras were all operating. And that month showed that the Third and Bryant streets block generated 4,000 speeding tickets for the month, or about 130 speeding tickets per day. That one block alone accounted for nearly 25% of all speeding tickets issued systemwide by all 56 speed enforcement cameras.

SFMTA analysts were not surprised. That block pulls in many drivers zipping off I-80 at the Fourth Street exit ramp, where the speed limit quickly lowers from highway speeds to 25 MPH on a four-lane stretch of Bryant Street that is all one-way traffic. On average, the speeders there were caught going 39 MPH, or 14 miles above the speed limit.

For those drivers going 14 MPH over the speed limit, that first offense would just get them a first-time warning. But the second offense would get the driver a $50 ticket. And those going 16 MPH or more over the speed limit get no warning, and a $100 ticket.

As a reminder, the fines for getting caught by the speed cameras start at $50 for those going 11-15 miles over the speed limit (and the first such infraction just gets you a warning). Fines move up to $100 for those going 16-25 miles over the speed limit (with no first-time warning), $200 for those going more than 25 miles over the speed limit, and a $500 fine if you somehow manage to be going more than 100 miles per hour over the speed limit on a San Francisco street.

Related: No More Warnings: SF Speed Cameras Will Start Issuing Fines, Starting Tuesday [SFist]

Image via Google Street View

• US envoy Steve Witkoff will meet Qatar’s prime minister in Spain as Egypt and Qatar advance a ceasefire plan trading all hostages for Israel’s Gaza withdrawal. Over 20 nations have condemned the planned expansion as a “dangerous escalation,” and Germany has halted military exports that could be used in Gaza. [Associated Press]
• According to social media reports, Los Angeles protesters are now referring to ICE rallies as “LA Music Festival” on Tik Tok to avoid censorship. Groups have been steadfastly conducting peaceful actions in front of the Metro Detention Center as well as the Federal Building. [Threads]

• Giants pitcher Kai-Wei Teng led the team 5-0 against the Washington Nationals in the first win of his career at Oracle Park, which he dedicated to his dad on Taiwan’s Father’s Day. [Bay Area News Group]
• One child was killed and another injured Friday evening in Burlingame when a vehicle believed to have been driven by a 19-year-old San Mateo woman struck them on the sidewalk. [KRON4]
• BART temporarily suspended service on its red and green lines Saturday morning, and the yellow line experienced major delays due to power issues that led to single-tracking in the Transbay Tube, which was restored around 7:45 a.m. [KPIX]

• A man and a woman are in stable condition after being shot in North Oakland Friday night around 11:30 p.m. by a group of people who fired over a dozen rounds of bullets at them on the 800 block of 46th Street. [Bay Area News Group]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Don’t say you weren’t warned, as those new speed-monitoring cameras up all over San Francisco will stop cutting slack and start hitting speeding drivers with fines of at least $50, beginning this Tuesday, August 5.

Those long-promised San Francisco speed-monitoring cameras arrived in March of this year, and by June, there were 33 of them installed around town. The cameras automatically snap pictures of vehicles going more than 11 miles per hour over the speed limit, then send the driver an automated ticket (between $50 and $500) in the mail. And they’ve been catching as many as 1,000 speeding drivers per day, but thus far, those drivers are only being sent warnings instead of tickets that actually cost money.  

The SF Municipal Transit Agency (SFMTA) is very clear about exactly where these cameras are located, and they’ve said all along that the cameras will start capturing speeders and prompting tickets to be issued on Tuesday, August 5. Well, that’s Tuesday of next week, and NBC Bay Area reports that indeed those cameras will start causing drivers to incur fines on Tuesday.  

“The SFMTA Speed Safety Camera program launched on March 20, and all cameras were issuing warnings as of June 6, 2025,” SFMTA said in an announcement. “The program may begin issuing citations on August 5, 2025, at the earliest. Cameras enforce both directions of travel, unless noted otherwise.” (Boldface emphasis theirs.)

In many cases, it is clearly posted near the cameras that violations for your potential speeding are “photo enforced.” So you have little excuse for exceeding the speed limit in those areas.

As the above tweet from KTVU’s Betty Yu explains, fines will start at $50 for those going 11-15 miles over the speed limit, $100 for those going 16-25 miles over the speed limit, $200 for those going more than 25 miles over the speed limit, and a $500 fine if you somehow manage to be going more than 100 miles per hour over the speed limit.

You can theoretically get those fines slashed in half if you qualify as “low income.” If you get a ticket, you could apply for a low-income waiver here. But either way, you’re going to start getting fined for speeding in San Francisco at those 33 posted intersections once Tuesday rolls around.

Related: Those New SF Speed Cameras Are Catching 1,000 Speeders Every Day, Most on Fulton Street [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

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• Over 300 teens gathered at the Streets of Brentwood mall Friday afternoon in an event organized on social media, leading to chaos with fights and property damage. Five juveniles were arrested and cited, businesses closed early for safety, and multiple law enforcement agencies responded to disperse the crowd. [Bay Area News Group]
• A woman who died after she was found with a gunshot wound in Vallejo on July 5 may have been the victim of a road rage incident. Police are asking for witnesses or surveillance from eastbound I-80 near Tennessee Street and Redwood Parkway between 1:25 and 1:35 a.m. [KPIX]
• Bay Area cities including Fremont, Newark, and Union City have set up temporary trash drop-off sites as the Teamsters strike against Republic Services continues to disrupt regular garbage pickup. With no clear end in sight, the company is bringing in out-of-town workers — “scabs” — to resume limited collection. [Bay Area News Group]
• A paraglider lost control and crash-landed at Mussel Rock Park in Daly City on Saturday, prompting a rope rescue and hospitalization, officials said. [KGO]

• A 25-year-old Sunnyvale man was arrested for allegedly making sexually suggestive gestures toward young children at Eagle Park in Mountain View. [KRON4]
• A man was killed and a woman seriously injured when a speeding car went airborne and rolled off Highway 12 near American Canyon Friday night; CHP says alcohol may have been a factor. [KRON4]
• Around 500 fans turned up to Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara Saturday for the big Hello Kitty Cafe opening, extending from one end of the mall to the other — with more events happening on Sunday. [San Jose Spotlight]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Every one of those 33 speed-limit enforcement cameras is now up and running across San Francisco, and while they’re still just issuing warnings, they’ll start slapping speeders with fines of $50 and up come August 5.

We’ve known for more than a year and a half that San Francisco would be getting speed-monitoring cameras that would automatically snap pictures of any vehicle going more than 11 miles per hour over the speed limit, and then the drivers would be sent speeding tickets in the mail. The SF Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) started placing these cameras up in March, at the locations detailed below.

Well, the SFMTA claimed ina Friday morning announcement that all 33 speed cameras are now installed and fully operational. "We anticipate turning on the last camera the first week of June,” SFMTA Director of Streets Viktoriya Wise told NBC Bay Area last month. “Then after that, there will be a 60-day period in which we continue issuing warnings. And then after that, people will be getting citations."

Thus far, the SFMTA is being true to their word. The cameras are up and running by the end of the first week of June. And with the clock now ticking on the two-month grace period where only warnings will be issued, those warnings will turn into cash-money fines of $50 per more a pop starting on Tuesday, August 5.

Fines will start at $50 a month for those going 11-15 miles over the speed limit, $100 for those going 16-25 miles over the speed limit, $200 for those going more than 25 miles over the speed limit, and a $500 fine if you somehow manage to be going more than 100 miles per hour over the speed limit.

Though you could theoretically get those fines slashed in half if you qualify as “low income.” If you get a ticket, you could apply for a low-income waiver here.

Those fines and citations will only be civil penalties, they will not not count as points against your driving record. But these speeding tickets can cost you money, so slow down by August 5, if not sooner.

Related: Those New SF Speed Cameras Are Catching 1,000 Speeders Every Day, Most on Fulton Street [SFist]

Image: SFMTA

They’re still just giving out warnings for lead-foot drivers who are caught by those new speed-detecting cameras, but data from the first month of the program shows that a stunning 44% of all citations citywide were issued to drivers on Fulton Street.

We’ve known since 2023 that San Francisco would be getting speed-monitoring cameras that would take pictures of any vehicle going more than 11 miles per hour over the speed limit, and those drivers would then automatically get a speeding ticket in the mail. The SF Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) started placing these cameras up in March, at the locations detailed below.

Not all of these are up yet, though more than half of them are. And now the SFMTA has released that first month’s data, which shows that the cameras are catching an average of 1,000 speeding drivers every day, according to NBC Bay Area. And mind you, that’s not even with the whole fleet of cameras installed yet.

The shocker here is that the speeding drivers are disproportionately on Fulton Street in the Avenues, the area immediately to the north of Golden Gate Park. According to NBC Bay Area, “about 44% of the warnings they have sent out so far are from a stretch of Fulton Street.” Looking at the SFMTA map, that "stretch" would be on Fulton between Arguello Street and 40th Avenue.

The data also contains the interesting tidbits that Tuesdays are the days on which the cameras snap the largest number of speeding vehicles, and that the hour that sees the highest number of speeding citations is the hour between 7 am and 8 am on weekdays.

The data additionally showed that a large majority of speeding drivers are going more than 15 miles per hour over the speed limit. That’s alarming, considering that most San Francisco streets have speed limits of 35 miles per hour or less.

That said, no one who’s been issued a ticket yet has had to pay anything. They will not start charging offenders actual money until two months after the final camera has been installed.

"We anticipate turning on the last camera the first week of June,” SFMTA Director of Streets Viktoriya Wise told SFMTA. “Then after that, there will be a 60-day period in which we continue issuing warnings. And then after that, people will be getting citations."

Those citations will only just be civil penalties, and will not not count as points against your driving record. But the fines can be anywhere from $50 to $500, depending on how fast beyond the speed limit the driver was traveling.

Related: Slow Down! Those Speed Cameras Are Now Up in SF, Starting Today [SFist]

Image: 21five via Reddit

While the passengers suffered only minor injuries, the driver may be looking at a massive financial setback, as excessive speed appears to have been a factor in the totaling of a $400,000 Lamborghini Sunday near Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz’s State Route 9 is a pleasant little two-lane highway with a mostly 35 MPH speed limit. But locals have lately been complaining of reckless driving on that highway, and there have been calls to lower that speed limit. A Sunday afternoon incident helps explain why.

KRON4 reports that some driver flipped a Lamborghini on State Route 9 just north of Santa Cruz. The passengers of the single-car wreck escaped with just minor injuries, and California Highway Patrol officers were able to push the car off the road to prevent any subsequent collisions.

California Highway Patrol also took to Facebook saying, “This crash was preventable. PLEASE SLOW DOWN! Hwy 9 is not a racetrack.” That message seems to indicate that the driver’s speed was a factor in the crash.

Officers responded to the crash at around 12:14 pm Sunday afternoon.

The Highway Patrol describes the vehicle merely as a “2023 Lamborghini,” though KRON4 identifies the model as a Huracán STO. That station points out that this model and make has an average sale price of $402,936.

Related: Suspected DUI Driver In Marin County Drives Ferrari Right Into Richardson Bay [SFist]

Image: CHP - Santa Cruz via Facebook

Effective right now, San Francisco is the first city in California to have speed-monitoring cameras that will snap pictures of any vehicle going 11 mph over the speed limit. Though the fines won’t kick in for another 60 days.

We’ve known for more than a year that San Francisco would be getting speed-monitoring cameras that would take pictures of vehicles going more than 11 miles per hour over the speed limit, then sending the driver an automated ticket in the mail. This past January, the SF Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) announced that these cameras would be up sometime in March.

And the speed cameras are now up and running, as of Thursday morning, as KTVU reports. According to KRON4, there are 33 speed cameras citywide, though only 12 of them are working and snapping pictures as of today. The Chronicle describes the cameras as being “strategically placed near freeway exits or on busy waterfront arteries.”

The SFMTA is making absolutely no secret of these cameras’ locations (unlike the SFPD with those automated license plate readers, whose locations the department refuses to disclose). All 33 cameras are installed at the above-seen locations, and the SFMTA is even being up front about which 12 cameras are currently working, or “Issuing Warnings.”

The camera system will only send warnings for speeders for the first 60 days of the program. But come mid-May, those citations will be tickets you have to pay.

The cameras will automatically take pictures of the rear license plate of any vehicle going 11 miles per hour or more over the speed limit. Tickets will then arrive in the mail within two weeks. You can be fined anywhere from $50 to $500 depending on how fast beyond the speed limit you are traveling, though you can try to make the case that you're a “low-income offender” and pay less for the tickets.

These citations are only civil penalties, points will not be applied to your driver’s license.

But KGO reports that SFMTA estimates they will issue 42,000 citations per day, a pretty staggering sum (though maybe that will help with the agency’s budget deficit?). One camera at Geary and Seventh Avenue is even projected to produce 4,000 citations per day. So watch your ass at that intersection, drivers!

The cameras are arriving at an opportune time. Traffic deaths hit a 17-year high in 2024, with 42 fatalities, most of these caused by excessive speed.

Though there may be problems with this system. KGO reports that “ABC7 News reporter J.R. Stone walked half a mile in each direction of the Harrison Street intersection [with cameras] and could not fire any speed limit signs.”

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If you think these speed cameras are a cause for cheer, you can join like-minded people at a speed camera celebration happy hour Thursday night from 6 to 7:30 pm at The Willows (Folsom and 12th streets), where Mayor Lurie will pop in and say a few words.

San Francisco is now the first city in California to get these speed cameras, though they’re also coming soon to Oakland, San Jose, and Los Angeles.

Related: Dozens of Speed Cameras Planned in SF for Areas With ‘Known Risks’ Like Crashes and Sideshows [SFist]

Image via SFMTA

The new San Francisco speed monitoring cameras have been in the works for about a year and a half, and they’re supposedly going to finally arrive in March, with a billboard and online ad campaign going live now to announce their arrival.

We learned back in October 2023 that San Francisco was going to get a few dozen speed cameras to track and cite motorists who are speeding in high-crash areas and school zones. An entire year later, we did not hear much more about them, until an announcement that they were coming in February 2025. And it seems SF Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is in the stretch run now, as the Chronicle has the updated news that the speed cameras are coming in March 2025, with a public awareness campaign already starting up to announce their arrival.

Unlike with those SFPD automated license plate readers, SFMTA is being very public about where every one of these cameras will be located, and they’ve created the map above to detail these locations. While the agency describes them as “operating at up to 33 locations across the city,” it’s actually a network of more than 50 cameras. Some locations will have multiple cameras, based on whether the location has a one-way or two-way street, or if multiple camers are merited on the same street.

They so badly want you to know these speed cameras are coming that they’re putting the above ad up on billboards and bus shelters all over town. According to the Chronicle, the billboards went up today “at intersections in Chinatown, North Beach, the Mission, the Richmond and the Bayview.” SFMTA has apparently also bought some Youtube pre-roll ads that will show the claymation video below by local artist Ahmad Walker.

The cameras will apparently assess vehicles’ speeds, and snap a photo of the license plate of the car going 11 miles or more above the speed limit. The camera operators Verra Mobility will then send the photo to the California DMV to issue citations.

“We don’t want this to take anyone by surprise,” SFMTA’s Speed Safety Camera Program manager Shannon Hake told the Chronicle. “We want people to know exactly where these cameras are.”

“It would be great if we didn’t have to issue any tickets,” she added. “What we really want is that behavior change.”

There will be only warnings and no fines for the first two months of the speed-camera program. After that, fines will be issued, and their size will depend on how many miles per hour the driver has exceeded the speed limit.

Related: Dozens of Speed Cameras Planned in SF for Areas With ‘Known Risks’ Like Crashes and Sideshows [SFist]

Image: SFMTA via Youtube

Photo courtesy of SFMTA

On Saturday, another car hit a pedestrian at a San Francisco bus stop, this time in the Richmond District.

The crash happened around 4:50 pm Saturday, at the Fulton Street and Park Presidio Boulevard Muni bus shelter next to Golden Gate Park, per KTVU.

San Francisco Police Department officers reportedly responded to the scene to find an adult male pedestrian injured on the sidewalk, and a Nissan vehicle partially on the curb which also knocked down a street sign.

The pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries, and emergency responders took him to the hospital to recover. The driver of the vehicle was cited for multiple moving violations, KPIX reported.

State Senator Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco, responded on social media, calling for safer street design and an end to reckless speeding.

"It doesn't have to be this way. We can make our roads safer," Wiener wrote, referring to the 4,000 people who die each year on California's roads.

Wiener is working on a new bill that would implement speeding limits in cars directly, preventing them from going more than 10 mph over the speed limit

The Park Presidio incident occurred a week after a fatal crash at a bus stop in the West Portal neighborhood tragically killed an entire family of four.

Police asked anyone with information about Saturday's crash to contact the department at 415-575-4444 or send a text to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD.

Image of crash via Jen Nossokoff

The latest proposal to roll out speed-limit detection cameras in the largest California cities is picking up the pace in the state legislature, and drivers in Oakland, SF, and San Jose could get automated speeding tickets for going 11 or more miles per hour over the speed limit.

Lawmakers have been talking about putting up speed cameras for years, but right now in San Francisco, we mostly just have cameras catching drivers for running red lights and illegal right turns. The Sacramento Bee reported last week on a new bill before the state Assembly to put speed cameras in six California cities, and SF, Oakland, and San Jose would be among those cities, according to SFGate.

The bill is called AB-645, counts Assemblymember Phil Ting as a co-sponsor, and was co-authored by our own state Senator Scott Wiener, and Assemblymember Matt Haney. According to the full text of the legislation, "The speed safety system shall capture images of the rear license plate of vehicles that are traveling 11 miles per hour or more over the posted speed limit and notices of violation shall only be issued to vehicles based on that evidence."

The cameras are automated, and the billing would also be entirely automated. Speeding fines would start at $50 for drivers photographed going 11 miles per hour over the speed limit, and would go up incrementally for higher speeds. Drivers would still have a review and appeals process available to dispute the speeding tickets.

Drivers would only get warnings for the first 60 days of the program, which would start January 1, 2024. The other California cities in this proposed five-year pilot program are Los Angeles, Glendale, and Long Beach.

But there have been multiple state-level attempts to pass such a law since 2017, all of them have failed. People who hate to see “cameras everywhere” could stir up some civil liberties arguments against them, and the decision of where to place the cameras could create complaints that certain communities are being unfairly targeted.

Pardon the pun, but this bill has still been speeding through the Assembly this year, having cleared five committee votes. According to SFGate, it has another hearing before the House Committee on Appropriations sometime after the Assembly’s summer recess ends August 15.

Related: Should SF Streets Get Speed-Enforcement Cameras? [SFist]

Image: Denny Müller via Unsplash