Skip to main content

Speed cameras have ‘changed the way people in Montgomery County drive’

According to police in Montgomery County, Maryland, the speed camera program the county started in 2009 has made roads safer and reduced speeding in a way no other tool could. “What we’ve seen is something that’s changed driver behavior like nothing else has in the history of law enforcement,” Captain Paul Starks, a police spokesperson, told County Cable Montgomery. Starks said the number of citations from speed cameras is on a steady decline, proof that the program is working and not merely a revenue strat
May 29, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
According to police in Montgomery County, Maryland, the speed camera program the county started in 2009 has made roads safer and reduced speeding in a way no other tool could.

“What we’ve seen is something that’s changed driver behavior like nothing else has in the history of law enforcement,” Captain Paul Starks, a police spokesperson, told County Cable Montgomery.

Starks said the number of citations from speed cameras is on a steady decline, proof that the program is working and not merely a revenue strategy.

“Our goal from the start has been to change driver behavior, particularly in areas where we have pedestrians and a history of collisions,” said county council member Phil Andrews, who the Council’s Public Safety Committee. “Our police department has done an excellent job of placing cameras where the history shows there’s been a large number of collisions or where there are many pedestrians, especially children, present in school areas or areas near bus stops, playgrounds and areas where speeding has been a long concern and there’s been a connection to collisions.”

Related Content

  • Improving traffic flow with automated urban traffic control
    April 25, 2012
    Alterations to traffic signals and variable message signs are being activated to reduce congestion as soon as it occurs, through a pioneering fully automatic UTC system. Jon Masters reports In the South Yorkshire town of Barnsley in England, strategies for dealing with traffic congestion have been devised from analysis of queue data, then made to work automatically: “This represents the future of ITS for urban traffic control,” says Siemens Consultancy Services senior engineer David Carr. Over a career span
  • TfL to trial new bus sensor technology
    August 1, 2014
    Transport for London (TfL) is to trial detection software to enhance bus driver awareness of pedestrians and cyclists. The six-week trial will start later this month as part of a continued drive to improve road safety in the capital. Four buses will be fitted with brand new pedestrian and cyclist detection software which directly alerts bus drivers when pedestrians and cyclists are moving close to their vehicles, helping to reduce collisions. TfL is trialling two systems, CycleEye from Fusion Processi
  • Predicting the future for video camera systems
    March 12, 2012
    Jo Versavel, Managing Director of Traficon, talks about near-term trends in video camera systems. Jo Versavel starts by making one thing clear: long-term forecasts as to what the future holds for video-based traffic monitoring are to all intents and purposes meaningless. The state of the art is developing so fast that in reality it's impossible to say where we'll be in 10 years' time, says the Managing Director of Traficon. In his opinion making firm predictions even five years out is too ambitious, whereas
  • Jenoptik enforcement action begins in Maryland
    August 22, 2024
    Systems in Prince George’s County contain Vector SR camera and a radar sensor