{"id":505845,"date":"2026-10-23T22:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T22:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505845\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T22:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T22:44:14","slug":"san-jose-launches-its-automated-speed-cameras-heres-where-theyll-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505845\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jos\u00e9 Launches Its Automated Speed Cameras. Here\u2019s Where They\u2019ll Be"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Jos\u00e9<\/a> has launched its automated speed safety camera program in an effort to curb the city\u2019s most deadly driving behavior, Mayor Matt Mahan announced Friday.<\/p>\n

The cameras will be located at 33 locations throughout the city \u2014 two at each site. Beginning Dec. 14, the cameras will issue warnings to any vehicles traveling 11 mph or more over the speed limit. Sixty days later, they\u2019ll issue citations starting at $50, with higher penalties for greater speeds. Every vehicle gets one courtesy warning for its first violation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really about enhancing community safety,\u201d Mahan said. \u201cIt\u2019s devastating to meet families who have lost loved ones unexpectedly due to traffic accidents, and particularly speeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speeding is the No. 1 cause of traffic accidents and fatalities in San Jos\u00e9, Mahan said. The city has, so far, recorded 41 traffic-related deaths this year \u2014 down from a high of 65 in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mahan said more people die in traffic deaths than by homicide in San Jos\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aThis is a step towards preventing the kind of tragedy that shattered our world,\u201d said Jorge Quiroz, whose 5-year-old daughter Aileen was days away from graduating kindergarten when she, her sister and her aunt were struck by a speeding driver near San Jos\u00e9\u2019s Parkview Elementary in 2013.<\/p>\n

Quiroz said Aileen was killed instantly, and he and his wife Elizabeth then spent five years advocating for a speed camera pilot to state lawmakers in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIt\u2019s not to punish the drivers. We want to change the culture,\u201d Quiroz said. \u201cWe want them to think of these cameras as a saving life tool. I want them to think of Aileen, of those families who will never get another hug.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each of the city\u2019s 10 City Council districts will have at least one camera. The city selected camera locations based on past crash history, including sites that have seen collisions due to speeding, red light running or failure to yield to pedestrians or bicyclists, as well as proximity to places like hospitals and senior centers.<\/p>\n

The city estimates the program will cost between $15.4 million and $17.9 million to install, operate and maintain over the five-year pilot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speed cameras began ticketing<\/a> in San Francisco in August 2025 and in Oakland<\/a> in March 2026. Both cities have reported major drops in speeding at camera locations since the cameras began operating.<\/p>\n

According to a recent report<\/a> on the first 18 months of San Francisco\u2019s program, the share of drivers traveling more than 10 mph over the speed limit dropped by nearly 84% across camera locations compared to pre-implementation levels \u2014 and 63% of the vehicles cited did not get a second warning or citation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing significant progress over time, which overall makes San Francisco streets safer,\u201d\u00a0said Viktoriya Wise, director of streets at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A speed camera on Geary Street in San Francisco on March 19, 2025.\u00a0(Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/p>\n

In an August report<\/a> on the first six months of its program, Oakland said drivers traveling 11 mph or more over the speed limit dropped by 70% at its camera locations. One location saw a 91% reduction in speeding, according to the city\u2019s Department of Transportation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Street safety advocacy groups, like Walk San Francisco, have begun pushing for a new state law to expand San Francisco\u2019s speed camera program and expand it to other cities in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cWalk SF is aware of more than a dozen California cities, big and small, that now want speed camera programs for their city to help address dangerous speeding,\u201d said Marta Lindsey, communications director for Walk San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Jos\u00e9, like other Bay Area cities, has recently seen intense opposition to other camera systems in use in the city, like the nearly 500 automated license plate readers<\/a> operated by the company Flock Safety, but Mahan stressed that the speed cameras \u201care not surveillance cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safe streets advocates in Oakland have said the speed cameras are a good step to help reduce speeding, but cities should continue to focus on other measures<\/a> to discourage the behavior, like redesigning roads in ways that force drivers to travel more slowly and protect cyclists and pedestrians.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city has contracted Verra Mobility Services, an Arizona-based transportation technology company, to provide tech support and process citations. Verra holds similar contracts for San Francisco\u2019s and Oakland\u2019s automated speed camera programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Citations generated by automated speed cameras are a civil penalty, so they don\u2019t generate points against a driver\u2019s driving record like a criminal penalty. Revenue generated from San Jos\u00e9\u2019s speed camera citations will go toward the cost of running the program<\/a>, and any surplus revenue may only be used on traffic safety improvements, in accordance with AB 645.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quiroz said speed cameras are \u201cjust another tool\u201d to prevent speeding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIs it going to solve the whole issue? No, I don\u2019t think so. But I think it\u2019s going to help save lives,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is so preventable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

KQED\u2019s Sara Hossaini<\/a> contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Jos\u00e9 has launched its automated speed safety camera program in an effort to curb the city\u2019s most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-505845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505845","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=505845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}