San Francisco's streets are under the watchful eyes of new speed safety cameras, which are already making their presence known. With a hefty tally of over 31,000 warnings issued in April, that's averaging out to more than 1,000 warnings each day. We'll likely see these numbers climb when an additional dozen cameras are switched on early next month. PG&E has signaled preliminary approval to power these new watchdogs in some of the city's high-risk areas.
In a data-driven push for safer streets, San Francisco might finally get a grip on its speeding problem. The early results are laying it all bare on the dashboard for all to see, provided you're inclined to check out the latest updates from DataSF's new public dashboard that's documenting speed patterns around the clock, the SFMTA has announced that further measures are in the works to curb the excessive speed particularly on Fulton between Arguello Boulevard and 2nd Avenue, where violations are outranking other locations by six times. Geary between Webster and Buchannan saw the highest speed, clocking someone blowing through at 65 MPH in a 30 MPH zone.
The morning commute seems to be the prime time for pushing the pedal a little too hard, with evidence pointing to 7 to 8 AM as the speeding sweet spot. For whatever reason, Tuesdays are taking the lead in violation frequency. But while behavior patterns are beginning to surface, it's still early days for predicting any long-term shifts in driver habits; this tidal wave of data is just setting the baseline for what comes next in the fight for safer roads.
Taking a closer look at the specifics, the SFMTA is putting muscle behind its findings, 77% of those warned were cruising at 11-15 MPH over the limit, and while fewer, 19% were caught going 16-20 MPH over, not to mention a troubling 4% who were barreling down at 21+ MPH over the speed limit, all this according to SFMTA's blog post on the fresh data.
