San Jose Standard

The City of San José has been awarded an $8.5 million grant to implement a speed safety camera project. The federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program is providing the funds, which will be used to acquire, test, and study vehicle speed-detection and citation technology over a five-year period. San José is one of six California cities permitted to pilot the cameras under Assembly Bill 645 (Friedman), passed in 2023.

City Manager Jennifer Maguire expressed her pride in the team from the Department of Transportation and City Manager's Office of Intergovernmental Relations for securing this vital funding. She thanked the U.S. Department of Transportation for recognizing the urgent need to address traffic deaths due to speeding.

Mayor Matt Mahan shared his optimism about the potential benefits of the Speed Safety Pilot program. He highlighted that it could make streets safer and lessen the burden on their understaffed police department.

San José’s Department of Transportation and Police Department have been working on traffic-calming projects and focusing enforcement along high-injury streets since announcing a Vision Zero program in 2015. The introduction of speed safety cameras is expected to significantly enhance these efforts.

Several organizations, including the National Transportation Safety Board, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Federal Highway Administration, and California Transportation Agency have recommended using speed safety cameras to enforce speed limits. The Federal Highway Administration reports that speed cameras can reduce crashes on urban streets by 54%. In New York City, speeding at camera locations decreased by an average of 73%.

John Ristow, Director of Transportation for San José, endorsed speed safety cameras as a proven tool for reducing speeding along high-injury streets across America. Acting Chief Paul Joseph also praised this innovative technology as instrumental in maintaining public safety standards.

The project will place 33 camera systems on high-injury streets around San José. The grant will also fund data collection, a racial equity analysis, and public engagement. The Department of Transportation is currently analyzing safety and speed data, consulting with community groups, and finalizing a list of candidate locations for the cameras.