Another remedy or obstacle, depending on your viewpoint, is coming to the city in the form of speed cameras.<\/p>\n
You’re reading the Essential California newsletter <\/p>\n
Sign up to start every day with California’s most important stories.<\/p>\n
By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a>, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy<\/a> such as personalizing your experience and ads. <\/p>\n My colleague Karen Garcia<\/a> chronicled the discussion about their use, when they will be installed, how they will be enforced and what infractions you might face.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at some of her reporting<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lights, camera, tickets<\/p>\n Late last month, L.A. city leaders approved the installation of 125 cameras throughout the city\u2019s 15 districts, from the San Fernando Valley to San Pedro.<\/p>\n Installation is taking place from now until July.<\/p>\n The move is part of a five-year pilot program authorized by a 2023 bill designed to combat speeding and an alarming rise in traffic deaths.<\/p>\n The argument for the speed cameras<\/p>\n Traffic fatalities in Los Angeles declined from 2024 to 2025, but the number of deaths from accidents remains persistently high, according to a recent report by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n Speed accounts for nearly one-third of all traffic fatalities, according to officials.<\/p>\n Roadway speed cameras have been proven to reduce speeding by 31% to 82% and fatal crashes by 53% to 71%, according to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.<\/p>\n The statewide pilot program includes the cities of Los Angeles, San Jos\u00e9, Oakland, Glendale, Long Beach and San Francisco.<\/p>\n Where are the cameras being installed?<\/p>\n Garcia put together a comprehensive list of affected streets that can be found in her article<\/a>.<\/p>\n The cameras will be dotted throughout all the districts, from Glassell Park and Chinatown, through South Los Angeles, Koreatown, Playa Vista, Chatsworth and Lincoln Heights.<\/p>\n What are the fines and how do they work?<\/p>\n Once the cameras are operational, drivers will have a 60-day grace period before they\u2019re fined for going 11 mph or more over the posted speed limit.<\/p>\n The cameras capture the speeding vehicle\u2019s license plate, and the license plate data is used to identify the registered vehicle\u2019s owner on file with the Department of Motor Vehicles.<\/p>\n Violators will receive a notice of violation in the mail within 15 days.<\/p>\n The violation is similar to a parking ticket; it doesn\u2019t count as points against the driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n If a driver other than the registered vehicle owner goes over the speed limit, the registered owner of the vehicle must foot the bill.<\/p>\n The penalty for violating the speed limit depends on how fast the driver is going.<\/p>\n The fines are:<\/p>\n $50 for driving 11 to 15 mph over the speed limit.$100 for driving 16 to 25 mph over the speed limit.$200 for driving 26 mph or more over the speed limit.$500 for driving 100 mph over the speed limit. (Yes, this is correct.)Payment plans and contest process<\/p>\n The L.A. Department of Transportation said a diversion program would be available for low-income recipients of violations to enroll in a payment plan or to perform community service in lieu of paying fines.<\/p>\n The vehicle\u2019s registered owner is expected to receive a written notice of violation within 15 calendar days of the offense.<\/p>\n The recipient then has 30 calendar days to request a review and will receive results from that process in 60 days.<\/p>\n For more information, check out the full article<\/a>.<\/p>\n The week\u2019s biggest stories (Christina House \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Coachella 2026Iran WarICE and immigrationSouthern California classicsWhat else is going onMust readFor your downtime (Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Rodin Eckenroth \/ Getty Images for SiriusX)<\/p>\n Going outStaying inL.A. Affairs<\/p>\n Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.<\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Jim Rainey, staff reporter How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The challenges of driving through Los Angeles streets are well known. There are the seemingly increasing number of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,2299,1085,891,2300,2297,340,2303,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,2302,1086,1459,2301,2298,74,225,315,688],"class_list":{"0":"post-263995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-civic-revolt","10":"tag-covid","11":"tag-covid-19","12":"tag-days","13":"tag-essential-california","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-l-a","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-headlines","18":"tag-la-news","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","21":"tag-los-angeles-news","22":"tag-los-angeles-times","23":"tag-may","24":"tag-pandemic","25":"tag-part","26":"tag-president-biden","27":"tag-red-county","28":"tag-san-diego","29":"tag-state","30":"tag-time","31":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Candidate](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776001764_471_.jpeg\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776001766_871_.png\")
<\/a> <\/p>\n
Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n