PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council’s Streets and Services Committee surprised public safety advocates on Tuesday, when members delayed action on a bill to enforce school speed zones with cameras.
The committee decided to hold the bill, which identifies seven school zones with high rates of crashes where speed cameras could be used during school hours when speed zone lights are flashing.
“I’m just concerned about the phone calls that we will get when neighbors didn’t know they were a part of this pilot program,” said Councilmember Kendra Brooks, normally a champion of school safety.
The delay was a blow to the Office of Transportation and Infrastructure (OTIS), which spent a year analyzing every school zone in the city and ranking them from the most to the least dangerous.
“There was extensive data analysis done to go to all the schools, select all the roads around the schools, look at the definition of the school zone and add up all the crashes that were in it,” OTIS Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives Chris Puchasky told the committee. “We looked at pedestrian crashes, speeding crashes and killed and serious injury crashes during school hours” to get the seven schools named in the bill.
Committee chair Jay Young appeared unimpressed.
“Our constituents don’t look at data. They look at their pockets,” he responded, suggesting his constituents would see it as a “money grab.”
Another committee member, Cindy Bass, chided OTIS for asking Isaiah Thomas to introduce the bill.
“This bill really should not have come from an at-large member,” she said. “District Council members are on the line. People expect us to know and have the answers.”
The legislation was prepared after the state permitted a five-year pilot project allowing the city to install speed cameras in five school zones. The state also permitted the Philadelphia Parking Authority to employ two mobile speed cameras so that seven school zones could be protected by the cameras. The seven schools span several Council districts but the state enabling legislation allowed only one bill for the cameras.
Thomas’ communications director Max Weisman thought it was a great opportunity to work with the Parker administration.
“We were excited to work with Mayor Parker on this bill because we share the commitment to safe streets and safe schools and safe students,” he said after the committee adjourned. “We’re going to continue having conversations with members who had apprehensions.”
A city spokesperson emailed a statement saying the administration would continue to lobby for the bill too. “The Parker Administration is unwavering in its commitment to improving traffic safety on city streets and keeping our children safe,” it said.
Council has previously approved bills for speed cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard, Broad Street and Route 13, none of which were held in committee though they impact far more drivers.
Cole Appelman of OTIS told the committee the Roosevelt Boulevard cameras had been hugely successful, reducing speeding violations by 95%. Rather than generating revenue, he said the cameras have changed behavior on the road, which is the goal for the school zone cameras.
Because the school zone pilot was enabled for a limited time, and the research took a full year, any delay is a setback to the project.
Chris Gale of the Bicycle Coalition urged the committee to advance the bill the next time it meets.
“Our kids deserve to get around safely. Our families deserve to get around safely,” he told KYW Newsradio.
The committee has not yet scheduled its next meeting.