‘Annoying’ but necessary? State mulls adding speeding cameras to highways
In a newly proposed bill, drivers could get clocked for speeding on highways without being pulled over.
House Bill 2485 would create a pilot program to test two or three automated cameras on state highways.
“We need to make our highways safer and we need to utilize all tools at our disposal to do that,” said State Rep. Andrew Barkis, who’s a sponsor of the bill.
The test period would clock your speed and snap a picture of your plates. The goals of the program are to test speed camera technology, determine whether the cameras affected drivers’ behavior, and collect public responses.
“745 in 2022 -- that is the number of people who passed away on our state highways,” said Rep. Barkis during a public hearing on Jan. 31.
Lawmakers say the reasoning behind the cameras is to keep drivers safe.
“Speed was one third in contributing factors in roadway fatalities in Washington state last year,” said Washington State Patrol Captain Deion Glover.
The safety cameras would need to be clearly marked through WSP and the Washington State Department of Transportation.
For some drivers KIRO 7 spoke with, there are pros and cons to this method.
“It would feel safer,” said driver Lili Dodson. “But also, if I was to speed, I would feel like I could get in trouble a lot faster, so that would be kind of annoying getting tickets all the time.”
They say speeding happens more often when the freeways are less busy.
“Hopefully that would help keep people from going 90 miles an hour in the morning,” said driver Aaron Vanderlinden. “On my commute, I do see people whizzing past me quite often.”
Vanderlinden says safety is a top priority, but so is his privacy.
“I do suppose that you slow down or decide not to go through it when you know you’re being watched, but I’m not sure I like being watched all that much either,” he posited. “But if you follow the rules, you don’t have anything to worry about when people are watching you.”
During the test period, there would be no tickets and just warnings.
If the bill moves forward and is passed, you could potentially get a fine of $124 for your first offense.
If you’re caught speeding again after that, it could turn into a $248 ticket.
An executive session to discuss it further is set for Monday morning.
