Editorial: Your choice, drivers; slow down or pay up

By The Herald Editorial Board

If your right foot — the one you use for your vehicle’s accelerator — has felt a little heavier in recent years because of the perception of reduced traffic enforcement that started with the pandemic, be prepared for your wallet to feel a little lighter in coming months.

To put it more bluntly, either slow down or pay up.

Starting in April with the school crossing zone for Horizon Elementary School along Casino Road, Everett drivers can expect to see more traffic enforcement cameras at six other intersections later this summer, as reported Saturday by The Herald’s Jordan Hansen. That’s in addition to similar cameras that arrived in Edmonds at the start of the year. And existing and planned traffic cameras elsewhere in Snohomish County.

And later this July, traffic enforcement cameras will be posted along state Department of Transportation work zones, such as the Highway 529 and I-5 interchange project, where posted speed reductions will be in effect; and enforced.

Exceed the speed limit in the Horizon school zone and the other Everett camera locations and — after a warning period for the cameras’ first 30 days — expect a $124 violation to be sent to your address. For those exceeding the speed limit in state DOT work zones, when workers are present, your photo-recorded violation could cost you a maximum of $500, double the usual penalty.

The work zone cameras will work as they do elsewhere for speed and red lights, such as school zones, parks and hospitals and where some cities have decided they’re necessary. Tickets will be mailed to vehicle owners — or the renter of a vehicle — within 30 days of the violation. The fine, which cannot by waived, reduced or suspended, must be paid within 30 days; unpaid tickets will be referred to the state Office of Administrative Hearings.

The need for greater driver attentiveness in school zones should be obvious. But for good measure city staff used the same photo equipment last spring to study driver compliance with the speed limit, when warning lights were flashing during students’ presence. A city traffic engineer reported that 98 percent of vehicles exceeded the posted 20 mph limit, and 90 percent were driving faster than 25 mph.

Yes, 20 mph means 20 mph.

For the highway work zones, the state Department of Transportation has reported an average of more than 625 work zone accidents each year in recent years, typically caused by tailgating, speeding and distracted driving.

At the same time, roads and highways in the state continue to see an increase in fatalities and injuries from vehicle wrecks in the last decade. Traffic fatalities hit their highest level since 1990 with 772 deaths in 2023, a 30 percent increase from 2019’s 538 fatalities and a 43 percent increase since 2013’s 438 deaths. While impaired driving accounts for nearly half of those accidents, unsafe speeds were involved in about a third of fatalities in 2022 and distractions in nearly a fourth, according to the state Traffic Safety Commission’s data dashboard.

While we’re on the subject of road safety, a reminder about approaching emergency zones, such as a law enforcement, other emergency vehicle or a tow truck stopped on the shoulder of a highway with lights flashing: on multi-lane highways drivers in the lane adjacent to the emergency are required by state law to move to the next lane unless changing lanes would be unsafe, or to reduce their speed by 10 mph below the posted limit or to 50 mph where the limit is 60 mph or above. The fine for that violation, like the work zone fine, is up to $500.

As to the effectiveness of traffic cameras in prompting a change in driver behavior, a January 2022 review by Crosscut of Seattle traffic data between 2013 and 2019 found that while infractions issued increased, so did accidents. Likewise, a review of Lynnwood’s 11 red-light and speed cameras found increases in tickets and crashes between 2017 and 2021. Even so, Lynnwood’s traffic engineer, Paul Coffelt, defended the camera program.

“The photo enforcement system has absolutely had an impact, a positive impact, on safety in the city of Lynnwood,” Coffelt told Crosscut. “But because there’s a human factor involved, of people not willing to change their behavior or that they can’t develop the skill. And they are going to continue to receive the photo enforcement citations.”

That perception is further strengthened by longer-term and nationwide studies, compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found that automated speed camera enforcement has been effective in reducing both speed and speed-related crashes. A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that the use of traffic cameras reduced red-light violations by 40 percent where installed, and that there was a 24 percent reduction in the rate of fatal wrecks caused by red light violations in cities with traffic cameras.

One study in a Maryland county, cited by the CDC, found that more than seven years after their introduction, speed cameras on residential streets and school zones reduced the likelihood that a driver was exceeding the speed limit by 10 mph, as compared to areas without cameras, also reducing the likelihood of an incapacitating or fatal injury. In a phone survey of drivers in the community, 95 percent were aware of the speed cameras, and 76 percent of those aware said they had reduced their speeds because of the cameras.

When a photo citation arrives in the mail, few drivers are going to feel appreciative, not at $124 to $500 a pop. But drivers need to consider the costs to be paid should speeding or inattentiveness lead not to a ticket but to injury or death, as is happening far too frequently on roads in Washington state.