SF speed cameras now giving citations, but how will the city get it right?
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The grace period is over. San Francisco speed cameras are now citing drivers.
"Up to 15 days from the time that you may have seen a flash in the camera because we obviously need to make sure that we are properly processing them and sending them to you in the mail," said Viktoriya Wise, streets director SFMTA.
San Francisco just became the first city in California to implement this speed enforcement technology, but how will the city make sure these citations are accurate? We spoke to SFMTA streets director Viktoriya Wise.
"So before we even turned them on, we had the vendor certify the camera, make sure the radar is working. We had an independent contractor review the cameras and make sure they are working, and then we did some of our own ground truthing and worked with SFPD and our parking control officers and used a radar gun again to make sure the cameras are working before we got to today," said Wise.
The cameras are live at all 33 locations. One of them is Bryant Street between 2nd and 3rd streets.
VIDEO: Where SF speed cameras are located, how much it will cost you if you're caught speeding
"The whole problem with this street is that it's a one-way street and as you can see its one, two, three, four lanes across so people treat it as an expressway," said Neil Cohen, a San Francisco resident.
The city gave more than 14,000 warnings to drivers on Bryant Street in the month of June - that's why now you'll bigger speed limit signs with clear messaging that photos are being taken.
"Hoping these cameras help out and make people slowdown," said Joaquin Gusman, San Francisco resident.
Every flash is a photo.
"They look at the license plate, make sure it's readable and make sure the speed was exceeded by at least 11 miles per hour," said Wise.
RELATED: Here's how many speeding drivers SF's new traffic cameras caught in May
How many people will be checking these photos?
Viktoriya Wise: "One person on the side of the vendor and another person at SFMTA"
Luz Pena: "Two people are the ones deciding?"
Wise: "They are not deciding. Technology is deciding but they are just doing that triple check to make sure that everything is okay and the technology as I mentioned has been triple vetted."
This driver said he doesn't speed so he is not faced by the cameras but was shocked to hear citations will cost anywhere from $50 to $500.
"It's just for profit. It's about a money grab," said Leland Wayne, a driver in San Francisco.
SFMTA confirmed not everyone will be cited. Those who haven't gotten warnings yet will still get one warning but if they speed again and then they will have to pay.
"We are being very thoughtful and conscious about affordability. There is opportunities for you to work off our citations by doing community service but also if you are low-income, the citations are lower," said Wise. "We hope to not issue a lot of citations to be honest."
The city is planning to re-certify these cameras every year and continue maintenance work to make sure trees are not blocking cameras from capturing speeding drivers.
