Encinitas eyes photo radar to nab speeders

By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer | Saturday, May 7, 2005 11:18 PM PDT ∞

ENCINITAS ---- The city of Encinitas, which uses cameras to catch red-light runners, is considering similar technology to nab speeders.

"Photo radar enforcement," as the technology is called, weds speed-sensing radar to cameras. Only one California city, San Jose, is known to use the system.

An Encinitas City Council member learned about photo radar during a visit to the Bay Area city and returned with details that enticed her colleagues.

Christy Guerin reported on San Jose's 8-year-old program last month as the City Council prepared to approve its traffic-management program intended to reduce speeds on neighborhood streets.

The Encinitas program favors publicity campaigns, road stripes and signs, and also provides what planners call "treatments" such as speed bumps, landscaping and medians as ways to slow traffic.

Traffic congestion and speeders top the complaints of Encinitas residents.

The council's unanimous approval of the Encinitas Neighborhood Traffic Management Program came with orders that its traffic engineers investigate photo radar.

"If it's something we can do that's effective and less expensive," Councilman Jerome Stocks said, "those are good things."

'Amazing' interest among city leaders

During Guerin's visit to San Jose, she and leaders from two dozen other cities convened for a meeting of the League of California Cities Public Safety Committee.

Photo radar was up for discussion.

"It was amazing how much interest there was" among elected officials, she said.

Bringing photo radar to Encinitas would require the blessing of traffic courts and the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, which polices the city's streets, Guerin said last week.

"We'd have to ask the judges what they'd need to be comfortable (with the technology)," she said.

City staffers already have started to collect information on photo radar and have talked with officials from other jurisdictions who also are interested in the technology, said Peter Cota-Robles, engineering director.

He said it would take at least a year for traffic engineers, the city attorney and Sheriff's Department to develop a photo radar program.

Cheaper than cops

Like red-light cameras, which the city uses at its busiest intersection on El Camino Real at Encinitas Boulevard, an automated, anti-speeding system would be cheaper to employ than a sheriff's deputy.

A recent city estimate placed the annual cost of hiring a deputy in 2009 at $420,000.

"Looking at (photo radar) strictly from a cost perspective, it appears as though it could be an attractive program," Cota-Robles said.

Red-light cameras in Encinitas snap still and moving pictures of vehicles and their drivers. A deputy sheriff later reviews the images to determine whether the law has been broken before mailing a citation to the vehicle's owner.

In San Jose, a city technician is in the van to operate the radar and camera equipment and to visually assess how fast a driver is going. More manpower is needed later to review the evidence and mail notices to speeders.

The nuts and bolts

San Jose's Web site explains the so-called Neighborhood Automated Speed Compliance Program.

Civilian officers park vans marked with the city's seal on neighborhood streets where speed limits are less than 30 mph.

Inside the $150,000 van filled with gear, a radar unit triggers the cameras to photograph vehicles exceeding the speed limit by a "predetermined" amount.

Cameras photograph the driver and the vehicle's license plates.

Because neighborhood residents are most likely to be photographed as speeders, they must sign petitions to ask for radar enforcement on their streets.

City crews post signs informing motorists that speed limits are enforced by photo radar before the photography begins, said Laura Wells of San Jose's Department of Transportation.

"We only go to streets where there's a chronic speeding problem," Wells said. "(Photo radar) is not a moneymaker for the city. It's a service we provide to our neighborhoods."

Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 943-2312 or akaye@nctimes.com.

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