A pro­pos­al to legal­ize traf­fic cam­eras in some Cal­i­for­nia cities passed the State Assem­bly and awaits approval from the State Sen­ate, reports Steve Scauzil­lo in Los Ange­les Dai­ly News.

Scauzil­lo explains, “Assem­bly Bill 645, authored by Assem­bly­mem­ber Lau­ra Fried­man, D‑Glendale, autho­rizes ‘speed cam­era’ pilot pro­grams in school zones and on high-injury streets with speed­ing prob­lems in six cities, Los Ange­les, Long Beach, Glen­dale, Oak­land, San Jose and San Fran­cis­co.”

The bill received wide­spread bipar­ti­san sup­port in the Assem­bly as traf­fic deaths in Cal­i­for­nia and around the coun­try reach alarm­ing­ly high num­bers. “In Cal­i­for­nia, the pedes­tri­an fatal­i­ty rate is near­ly 25% high­er than the nation­al aver­age. In 2021 alone, 4,258 Cal­i­for­ni­ans died in traf­fic col­li­sions, a 10.7% increase from the pre­vi­ous year.”

Auto­mat­ed enforce­ment is wide­ly cred­it­ed with reduc­ing deaths and seri­ous injuries. An Ottawa study showed a qua­dru­pling of com­pli­ance with speed lim­its near one school, and “In Scotts­dale, Ari­zona and Port­land, Ore­gon traf­fic fatal­i­ties have fall­en 54% since the cam­eras were insti­tut­ed. In Wash­ing­ton D.C, traf­fic fatal­i­ties decreased by 70%.”