Council Questions the Location of Speed Cameras as Another Goes Live

A northbound speed camera will be activated on Route 1 just north of MD-193 by the end of this week, said City Manager Joe Nagro at Tuesday night’s city council meeting. It will match a southbound camera already in place in the same area.

The new camera will mark the fourth set of speed cameras that have been rolled out around the city since November — the others are .

The cameras were authorized by the state to be located within half a mile of an Institute of Higher Education (IHE), in this case, the University of Maryland, said Director of Public Services Bob Ryan. Though the Route 1 camera does fall within the required boundary, some council members think the cameras could be better located.

Councilwoman Christine Nagle (Dist. 1) said the speed cameras would more effectively help pedestrians if they were located closer to the university.

“The camera would be either before the university, south of the university or at least closer to the university so people would know it’s there, and they would slow down,” she said. “And this location — north of 193 — just seems an unlikely spot to help for that.”

Councilman Marcus Afzali (Dist. 4) agreed, saying that though the cameras may be helping to slow traffic up north, the city should also have a camera located to the south.

“The main objective of being in an IHE zone is protecting those who are walking near that institution of higher learning,” he said.

It is possible to move the cameras within their approved zone, Ryan said, but added that because Route 1 lacks a shoulder, the city would need permission from property owners before placing the cameras on their land.

Ryan also said that the current location was selected because it had been identified by the city's contract police officers as a problem area.

"We still know there are some problem areas in south end of town, and we’ll be addressing those later," he said.

As of Feb. 28, the southbound speed camera alone issued 44,409 tickets since its debut at the end of January, making it the highest ticketing location by nearly 26,000 (Metzerott Road came in second with 18,428.) 

Another issue raised by the council is the amount of time that elapses between when a speed camera goes off and when the ticket is received in the mail. Ryan said that the law allows 14 days for the ticket to be delivered, as the tickets must first be processed by the camera vendor Optotraffic, reviewed by the Department of Motor Vehicles and approved by a police officer before finally getting mailed.

Note: An earlier version of this story referred to the city's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) officers, when it should have read "contract police officers." We regret the error.