New speed cameras generate 1,000 citations in 5 days in New Market
Oct. 28—Within the first five days of enforcement, speed cameras recorded more than 1,000 speeding violations on Main Street in New Market.
Speed cameras were installed in New Market in August 2022 after the town council in March 2021 approved an ordinance to allow for the cameras, sparked by concerns of speeding raised by the council and mayor.
Mayor Winslow Burhans III then said speeding had grown worse on Main Street over the past 20 years.
Other efforts by the town to curb speeding — such as parking bollards, directional alleys and pleas on Facebook to slow down — did not seem to work, Burhans told the News-Post in September.
The cameras were activated Sept. 9 for a monthlong warning period before fines began to be issued.
During the warning period, the cameras captured approximately 5,700 violations, according to Tommy Dommel, who administers the speed camera program for the town.
The cameras operate Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. They are located along the 0 to 100 block of Main Street and can be moved within a certain radius of New Market Middle and Elementary Schools.
Citations, which carry a $40 fine, began being issued Oct. 11 for vehicles traveling 12 mph or more above the 25 mph speed limit.
"In the first 5 days of the actual citations being issued there were 1005 violations," Dommel wrote in an email Wednesday, "which clearly shows a need for speed reduction measures."
As of Wednesday, Dommel said there have been 1,695 speeding violations since Oct. 11.
The mayor said during a phone interview Thursday that the number of violations were lower than predicted by a speed study.
"It's still kind of a wild number," Burhans said.
The money collected from fines must first be used to recover costs of the speed camera program, and the remainder will go toward public safety, according to the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration's website.
Nearly 50% of the fines collected go back to the speed camera vendor, Verra Mobility, according to Dommel.
The Frederick Police Department reviews camera footage and gives approval to issue citations.
If the fines collected exceed 10% of a town's annual revenue for that fiscal year after recovering speed camera program costs, the leftover money must be remitted to the state comptroller and placed in the general fund of the state, SHA's website states.
While much of the speed camera revenue goes back into the program itself, Burhans said, it appears the town will have decisions to make regarding the remaining money. He said some residents have expressed interest in seeing crosswalks, sidewalks, stop lights and better parking bollards.
"For me, it's sort of wait and see," Burhans said.
His hope is that the program brings speeding to a halt.
"The whole point of this thing is for it to fail," Burhans said.
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