Some drivers in Chicago will be walloped with unexpected tickets when 16 new speed cameras go live June 1.
The new cameras, mostly placed on the North Side, are about to finish a 30-day warning period and a two-week blackout period so notices could be delivered.
History shows the new cameras will issue significantly more tickets in their first days as drivers adjust their speeding habits. In the past four years, most new cameras hit motorists the hardest in their first couple of months of issuing tickets, according to a Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ analysis.
One of the new cameras at 4716 N. Ashland Ave. is painted black, and has a smaller profile than older, gray speed cameras drivers are familiar with.
The camera, attached to a light pole across from Chase Park, has been flashing in recent weeks as drivers sped past.
“They do fly down here,” says Chris Wood, 57, a homeowner on the block who was caring for his child who was sick from school. He hopes the new cameras educate drivers to pump the brakes before someone gets hurt.
Wood notices more drivers speed at night when traffic is light.
“It’s scary,” he says.
But it will take some time for drivers to learn to slow down. His family’s car has received at least five speed warnings from a new camera installed farther down Ashland, near Lake View High School.
Most new cameras issue more tickets early on
An analysis of city data shows that newer speed cameras tend to dish out more tickets in their initial months of operating. The drop-off has been dramatic for some cameras installed in the last two years.
The city’s highest-ticketing camera last year, at 10540 S. Western Ave. in Beverly, starting giving violations in late May 2024. The camera shelled out nearly 24,000 tickets in its first 30 days. That figure dropped in half roughly five months later, when it issued 11,249 tickets over the same period.
Even without a full year of operating, that camera on Western Avenue issued more violations than any other speed camera in the city in 2024 — 116,393 through Nov. 28, according to city data.
A camera that went online in late March 2023 at 901 N. Clark St. gave out 13,755 in its first month. That dropped 60% to around 5,400 tickets over the same period roughly four months later.
Drivers can expect many of the new cameras to pump out more tickets than usual in their opening days.
The cameras that will begin issuing tickets Sunday are located at: Bickerdike Square Park, 1455 W. Grand Ave.; Lorenz Brentano Elementary School, 2716 W. Logan Blvd.; Trumbull Park, 2310 E. 103rd St.; Palmisano Park, 2728 S. Archer Ave.; Senka Park, 3510 W. 55th St.; Mahalia Jackson High School, 8740 S. Vincennes St.; Skinner Park, 1341 W. Jackson; Ole A. Thorp Elementary Scholastic Academy, 3665 N. Austin Ave.; and Winnemac Park, 5059 N. Damen Ave.
Speed cameras have also been installed at: John Garvy Elementary, 6824 W. Foster Ave.; Lincoln Park, 220 W. Fullerton Ave.; James Farnsworth Elementary, 5432 N. Central Ave.; Lake View High School, 4118 N. Ashland Ave.; Chase Park, 4714 N. Ashland Ave.; Broadway Armory Park, 5857 N. Broadway Ave.; and Loyola Park, 7115 N. Sheridan Road.
Money versus safety
The Chicago Department of Transportation announced in March that 16 new cameras are the first of 50 that Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed to install to generate $11.4 million in 2025. The cameras are part of a plan to balance Johnson’s narrowly approved 2025 budget after the City Council refused to raise property taxes.
But balancing city finances should not be the purpose of the cameras, says Stacey Sutton, associate professor of urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois Chicago.
“Safety should be the primary focus — if not the only focus,” Sutton says.
Sutton published research in 2022 showing that tickets from Chicago’s speed cameras disproportionately burden Black and Latino communities. The research also found a 15% reduction in fatal and injury crashes around speed cameras. Though some cameras actually saw an increase in crashes around them, she said.
That is why it is important for the city to study the safety data and, when needed, move cameras to ensure that road safety is being improved, Sutton said.
The Transportation Department has said the 16 new locations were chosen “using a data-driven process that uses crash data and stakeholder feedback to identify areas experiencing traffic safety concerns.”
There are other means to increase road safety that are not revenue-generating, Sutton said, such as road calming measures like speed bumps and bump-outs. Recent research even supports narrowing road lane width to naturally lower the speed people drive.
Christina Whitehouse, of the advocacy group Bike Lane Uprising, approves of the cameras as an additional tool to encourage drivers to slow down.
“People are paying the price, and they are paying with lives lost,” she says.
Near schools, speed enforcement hours are between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday on school days. The speed limit is 20 mph when children are present and the posted speed limit when no children are present.
Cameras installed near parks will churn out warning notices and tickets when each park is open. That’s normally 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week.
Fines are $35 for traveling between 6 and 10 mph over the speed limit. It jumps to $100 if the recorded speed is 11 mph or more over the speed limit.
Seven additional cameras have been issuing warnings since May 1 and will begin ticketing June 15, according to a Transportation Department spokesperson.
Those cameras are at or near: Park 559, at 6146 N. Sheridan Road; Hirsch Metropolitan High School, 7733 S. Cottage Grove Ave.; Green Briar Park, 2640 W. Peterson Ave.; Kucinski-Murphy (Vicki Rosebeth) Park, 3358 S. Ashland Ave.; Edgebrook Park, 6614 N. Central Ave.; Meyering (William) Park, 442 E. 71st St.; Cole (Nat King) Park, 8553 S. Martin Luther King Dr.
According to a Transportation Department press release, another four cameras started issuing warnings May 15 and will start ticketing on June 30. Those cameras are located at or near: Perspectives High School, 49 W. 85th St.; Tilden High School, 614 W. 47th St.; Lincoln Park, 1635 N. LaSalle Dr.; Rosedale Park, 5941 N. Nagle Ave.
