PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia plans to install more speed cameras under a new bill signed Monday by Mayor Cherelle Parker.
The new cameras will be added along Route 13, a meandering state road that runs through Baltimore, Powelton, Girard, Hunting Park and Frankford avenues, and 38th, 33rd and 34th streets — crossing five City Council districts and bordering two more.
“It is ranked the second-most dangerous state route in Philadelphia,” the mayor said.
Parker said 208 pedestrians were struck there within a four-year period, and there have been 123 fatal and serious injury crashes.
Forty-two cameras will be added in all, one on each side of every mile of the winding route that goes from University City to the lower Northeast.
“We have schools right off of Frankford Avenue,” said Councilmember Mike Driscoll, who sponsored the bill. “We owe it to them, we owe it to our seniors who just want to get a cup of coffee and not be in the Daytona 500.”
Route 13 is now the third corridor to get speed cameras, joining Roosevelt Boulevard and Broad Street.
The Broad Street cameras are expected to be installed in the next month and Route 13 cameras by the summer. In the last four years, cameras on Roosevelt Boulevard have resulted in a 95% reduction in speeding violations and half the number of pedestrians hit, meaning an estimated 12 fewer deaths a year.
Stephanie Evans, who lost her son to a speeding crash on Broad Street, scoffed at those who believe the cameras are simply meant to generate revenue.
“It’s about saving someone else’s son, mother, grandmother,” she pleaded. “It’s about saving lives.”
Warnings will be issued during the first two months that the cameras are installed. After that, fines will range from $100 to $150, depending on how far a car is above the speed limit.