The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that in 2008, 13,000 pedestrians age 14 and younger were struck by cars. In the same year, approximately 11,000 pedalcyclists age 14 and younger were injured in motor vehicle traffic crashes. [1] Children are among the most vulnerable groups that law enforcement officers are charged to serve and protect, yet police departments around the country have struggled to find an effective, lasting solution to keep children safe from fast-moving traffic.
For decades, the City of St. Ann, a small municipality located in St. Louis County, has been plagued with drivers speeding at 40 or 50 mph along a 500-foot span of road in front of Hoech Middle School. This school zone has been the scene for numerous accidents, the majority involving children on bicycles being struck by speeding cars.
Slower motor vehicle speeds allow drivers to stop in a shorter distance and reduce the chance of injuring a pedestrian or bicyclist. The severity of crashes is also lower when motor vehicle speeds drop. Studies have revealed that if a pedestrian is struck by a vehicle traveling at 50 mph there is 100 percent likelihood that the pedestrian will be killed. Cars travelling at 40 mph that hit a pedestrian are 85 percent likely to kill the pedestrian. The percentage drops to 45 percent at 30 mph and 5 percent at 20 mph. Clearly, slowing motor vehicle speeds not only reduces the chance of a crash due to the shorter stopping distance that is required, but it also reduces the chance of a pedestrian fatality or serious injury. [2]
The St. Ann Police Department attempted to slow vehicular speed to the 20 mph limit through radar detection, but that effort proved unsuccessful because drivers would only slow down when officers were physically present to enforce traffic laws. Once officers left the vicinity, motorists would increase their speed and public safety was again at risk.
MVST, The newest kid on the block
New technology in the form of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) systems has made it possible for law enforcement officials to change driver behavior even when police are not on site. Studies have shown that speed cameras, when properly deployed, are effective in both reducing speeding and crash severity. [3]
St. Ann city officials hoped that ASE could be the solution to calming traffic and enhancing safety in their community of 13,000 residents. For this project, law enforcement officials would need to track two-lane, two-way traffic, thus they opted to use a Multiple Vehicle Speed Tracking (MVST) system developed by St. Louis-based company B&W Sensors.
The new-to-the-market MVST system enables speed detection and traffic monitoring for multiple lanes and multiple directions, all with a single camera. The MVST system continuously calculates the speed of each vehicle based on distance over time inputs, which is the widely practiced method of calculating the speed of vehicles and other objects.
“The MVST has been found to be more accurate than the latest generation of laser, radar or street-embedded sensors,” stated John M. Baine, of B&W Sensors.
During a three-day test period in the St. Ann school zone, data captured from pole-mounted cameras revealed that 158 drivers had violated the speed limit. The average speed during the testing model was 32 mph in a 20 mph zone, with some cars moving at speeds in excess of 50 mph. Faced with this alarming evidence of an unacceptably high safety risk, St. Ann city officials agreed that MVST should be implemented and the speed enforcement system was authorized by ordinance in November, 2009.
Modifying driver behavior
The 20 mph speed limit in front of Hoech Middle School is in effect weekdays from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. Other hours, the limit increases to 30 mph. Violations are issued to any vehicle moving at a speed in excess of 10 mph over the limit.
In February of this year, the region's first speed camera began monitoring the St. Ann school zone. During this month-long warning period, over 1,000 warnings were issued to the owners of those vehicles found to be violating the speed limit. Speeding dropped a dramatic 80 percent.
The enforcement system went into full effect on March 8, 2010. Once the system automatically detects, photographs and identifies the cars exceeding the posted speed limit, the police department completes a violation notice to the registered owners of those vehicles by mail. (The camera captures an image of the car and license plate but not an image of the driver.) St. Ann police review the information provided by B&W Sensors before the $100 tickets are mailed to motorists. Unlike a typical speeding ticket, those generated by photo enforcement do not result in any points against a motorist's driving record.
It is estimated that before the tracking system was installed violations reached a peak of 80 infractions per hour. Some six months after using the MVST system to enforce speeding, violations have dropped by more than 90 percent to eight violations per hour, with a goal of seeing that figure drop to one violation per hour. The average speed has dropped from 32 mph to 18 mph—2 mph under the limit! Of the speeding that does still occur, drivers are being clocked in the low-to-mid 30 mph range rather than at 50 mph. (See Figure 1.) The City of St. Ann considers the use of the MVST system a victory. This technology has accomplished in six months what the city has been trying to do for years: to slow down drivers in the school zone.
Another benefit of the MVST system is that it has improved the utilization of police resources. The St. Ann Police Department staffs 38 police officers to keep watch over the 4.5 square-mile municipality. The speed camera has become what Baine of B&W Sensors calls a “force multiplier.” “It enables them to take an officer from traffic enforcement duty in front of school and relocate him inside the school as a resource officer,” said Baine. Speeding is still the primary complaint among residents in the subdivisions of St. Ann, so the four-person traffic division is currently focusing attention on problem zones where no cameras are installed.
Getting the green light from the public
Individuals who have been issued a ticket through St. Ann’s ASE traffic enforcement process are entitled to plead their case in court. However, since every speeding violation captured on camera is reviewed by B&W Sensors and then double-checked and approved by the St. Ann Police Department, certainty is not at question. The vast majority of violations—approximately 80 percent—are paid upon first notice. Of the remaining 20 percent, 85 percent of fines are paid upon receipt of a second notice, which is issued 30 days after the first notice has been mailed.
ASE implementation has not gone without public comment, particularly regarding skepticism about motives for use and accusations that cameras are being used to generate revenue rather than to improve road safety. This is the case not only in the U.S., but in cities around the world where ASE programs are in operation. [4]
Studies regarding speed camera effectiveness have indicated that there are common factors that lead to successful implementation and public support of automated speed enforcement programs. Such determinants include: that ASE only be used where speeding can be predicted to create high crash risks and consequences as opposed to in low-risk environments, such as on rural freeways with low volumes of traffic and no history of speed-related crashes; that the ASE system be engineered to the “correct” speed limit; that the ASE operation receive top level support, including from police, politicians, transportation officials and businesses; that police be included in the ticket chain; that the return for vendors be “fair”; that revenue generated from ticketing be used for safety/traffic; that advance warning signs be used; and that purpose of the speed camera, that of reducing unsafe speed in high-risk environments, be clearly communicated to the public. [5,6]
The City of St. Ann and the St. Ann Police Department have attempted to address these factors throughout the process of adopting and implementing an ASE program. First, the city completed a thorough study to definitively assess the school zone as a high-risk area prior to adopting the ASE ordinance and installing the speed cameras.
In addition, city officials consider that in selecting the MVST system, they have chosen the most accurate, fair ASE system on the market. In his 2006 report on the effectiveness of speed cameras, David Willis, a research scientist at the Texas Transportation Institute’s Center for Transport Safety, noted that speed-over-distance camera systems, in comparison to single fixed or mobile cameras, are fairer to drivers: “With a single camera a momentary lapse of attention can result in a violation of the enforced speed limit. When speed is measured and then averaged over some distance, say a half mile or more, the driver has the opportunity to drop the vehicle’s speed back into compliance.” [7]
High levels of publicity have been shown to both reduce speeding and to garner support. The St. Ann Police Department issued multiple news alerts and gave interviews with TV and print media outlets in an effort to alert drivers to the change and also to explain why ASE was necessary for the community. These alerts and public appearances occurred prior to the installation of the speed camera, during the warning period and when the warning period neared expiration.
Another component that is critical for changing driver behavior and winning public support of ASE programs are advance signs that warn drivers they are being watched. In St. Ann, warning signs flank the enforcement zone from both directions, however, the city is taking further steps to ensure that motorists traveling through the area know that the eye of the camera is on them. Plans are to relocate the cameras so that they are distanced further apart, providing more drivers with additional time to reduce speed before entering the school zone. Also, the warnings signs are being redesigned; they will be increased in size so that the hours of enforcement are more visible to drivers.
The successful deployment of the Multiple Vehicle Speed Tracking system has convinced St. Ann law enforcement officers that ASE can be the right tool for enhancing safety in school, work and high-impact zones. MVST has also attracted the attention of law enforcement within the region. In July, the City of Charlack began using B&W Sensors’ system to patrol a quarter-mile stretch of Interstate 170, and officials in Herculaneum, a municipality just south of St. Louis, have expressed an interest in using speed cameras to reduce speeding and accidents along the portions of Interstate 55 and nearby U.S. 61-67 that are within the boundaries of the city.
“It’s a new tool, it’s new technology, it’s awesome,” stated Herculaneum Police Chief Chris Pigg about speed cameras. “I’m amazed at what they can do.”
Back in St. Ann, officials have been so amazed with what MVST has already done that they considering the placement of speed cameras in additional locations. One proposal has been to affix cameras to speed radar trailers placed in subdivisions. This action, officials hope, will curb habitual speeding in these neighborhoods and keep the children—indeed, all of the residents of St. Ann—safe.
Chief Bob Schrader is a 34-year veteran of the St. Ann Police Department and has served as the Chief of Police for St. Ann for 22 years.
