Smile speed demon, you are in front of the camera. Or you will soon.

On February 1, the long-awaited speed camera will be installed on one of Baltimore’s busiest highways: Interstate 83. After years of serious crashes and complaints from drivers and public officials, drivers may receive a ticket in the mail and choose to sail through the corridor at an unsafe speed if they do not comply with the law.

According to the state law that authorizes I-83 to use cameras, six cameras will be installed on an approximately 8-mile road in Baltimore, but only two cameras will operate at any one time. Drivers who exceed the speed limit for more than 12 mph will receive a $40 fine for each violation.

However, tickets will not be delivered by mail immediately. There is a 90-day grace period, hoping to encourage drivers to slow down instead of getting a ticket. During this period, speeding drivers will only receive email warnings.

"The overall goal of this is to slow people down," Baltimore transportation director Steve Sharkey told Baltimore Evaluation Committee members last month when they approved a $6.6 million contract renewal for Pay the camera fee for the first few months. 'Deploy.

Ministry of Transport spokesperson Marly Cardona-Moz said that the location of the six cameras is being considered. But the driver will know the location of the cameras before they are put into use through the signs in the area, she said.

When deciding the location of the camera, officials from the Ministry of Transportation are weighing collision data from the road and data collected during the trial run in March 2020.

A week-long test near the former Pepsi bottling plant found that 151,000 (42%) of the 360,000 cars passing through the camera exceeded the speed limit of 12 mph. The speed limit along the I-83 Interstate in Baltimore ranges from 40 mph to 55 mph. More than a quarter of the vehicles that passed the test camera exceeded the speed of at least 15 mph.

The recorded top speeds are incredible—perhaps the product of faster driving on less congested roads during the coronavirus pandemic. The fastest vehicle traveled at 173 miles per hour and crossed the path of the camera at 5 pm on Wednesday. The fastest vehicle the next day was recorded at 144 miles per hour at 10 am the next day. The other car was driving at 134 mph at 9 AM on Monday.

Although the goal is to slow down the driver, the camera will definitely bring income. State legislation that enables cameras requires funds raised to be used to improve roads.

Cardona-Moz said the funds will pay for the cameras first, and the city spent $6.6 million in the first six months of deployment. After that, the money will be used to clean roads, remove graffiti and repair highways. She said the funds can also be used for sign lighting, replacement of anti-glare panels (those panels on the middle wall), and removal of vegetation and garbage.

In addition, the Department of Transportation has identified 12 capital projects along interstate highways with a total value of 160 million U.S. dollars, including bridges, ramps, and the road itself. Cardona-Moz said that once the cameras are fully operational and income levels stabilize, these improvements will be sequenced and scheduled.

Camera prices for the first six months are estimated based on 150,000 citations published every month. After six months, the city will reset the monthly camera fees paid to supplier American Traffic Solutions based on the number of citations. Officials expect that as people slow down, citations will drop because they know the cameras are in place.

Cardona-Moz said that traffic advisory signs along the way will inform drivers which cameras are working at any given time. Speed ​​tracking signs will also be installed in the area to let drivers know they are speeding.

For Wendy Noyes of Baltimore, the two cameras on I-83 were not enough. Noyce, a Bolton Hill resident who drives on interstate highways every day, said that speeding drivers through other cars are the biggest danger.

"This gives no one a chance to respond," she said. "Someone runs behind you and scares you to death."

Noyes said she felt that the 90-day grace period was too long. She recommends a week.

"People don't need to warn," she said. "Before their insurance company no longer provides insurance for them, they need a large fine."

Parkerville resident Jeb Brownstein used to drive on the interstate every day, but now travels once or twice a month for business. He calls high-speed cameras a "cash grab" for the city. Bronstein said he supports the installation of speed and red light cameras in neighborhoods with pedestrians and cyclists. But he said speeding cameras would turn interstate highways into parking lots.

"Baltimore needs people to enter," Bronstein said. "They don't need the bad blood of people who have been ticketed for being 83 years old. This is a double loss."

Bronstein claimed that the speed announced on I-83 was unreasonably low.

"Forget about safety," he said. "It has nothing to do with security."

Crash data on the Baltimore Interstate Highway suggests that this is not the case. An analysis of roads from 2015 to 2019 found that there were more than 2,000 crashes, 50 of which resulted in serious injuries. Officials reported that in 2020, the Baltimore section received 1,700 service calls.

Ragina Ali, manager of public and government affairs at AAA Mid-Atlantic in Maryland and Washington, DC, said that when the conference reviewed the I-83 cameras, AAA did not take any position on them, but it supported the installation.

“Of course we recognize that there are some dangerous roads in the state, I-83 is one of them, and it is difficult for law enforcement agencies to enforce speed limits safely,” she said. "We know that there have been many serious and fatal collisions on this road."

Ali said that, like many interstate highways across the state and across the country, there has been a surge in speeding and aggressive driving during the pandemic.

For example, in 2020, violations and fines in Baltimore County are increasing, and some cameras issued fines five to six times the previous year.

In Baltimore, revenue from speed cameras has surged during the pandemic. Earlier this year, more than $6.5 million in high-speed camera proceeds helped balance the Baltimore Police Department's budget.

City budget officials said that even if the pandemic subsides and there are more cars on the road, drivers are reluctant to slow down. As of November, it is expected that the speed camera revenue in fiscal year 2022 will have a surplus of US$6.9 million.

Ali said that ideally, cameras on Interstate 83 would slow people down.

"The idea is... I hope it will resonate with motorists," she said. "They will receive quotes in the mail and adjust their behavior. In an ideal world, it should no longer be profitable in the end. However, if the motorist is still driving at high speed, they will not receive the information. There is a problem. of."