Chicago Mayor Laurie Lightfoot has publicly called for the preservation of one of her signatures – drivers for ticket sales caught by automated speed cameras exceeding the limit of less than 6 miles per hour.
The practice – unpopular with many drivers but hailed by many safety advocates – appears to have failed on Tuesday by aldermen seeking to repeal it.
The Finance Committee of the Municipal Council had to vote in the morning to criticize Mayor Ald. Anthony Biel’s proposal to reset the speed camera ticket and raise the ticket threshold to 10 mph above the speed limit as before.
The meeting was adjourned until the afternoon, but before the Aldermen even reunited, Lightfoot sent a statement acknowledging that Beale’s ordinance could go beyond the commission and begging council members to reject the change.
“The Finance Committee is ready to allow increased speeds near schools and parks throughout the city,” Lightfoot said in a statement. “I urge city council members to vote against this dangerous ordinance imposed by Alderman Biel, (Ed) Burke and (Raymond) Lopez.
The mayor added that there has been an increase in fatal road accidents over the past two years and warned that accepting Biel’s proposal would mean reducing public safety programs, infrastructure and safe passage workers by nearly $ 45 million.
“It is unconscious for any member of the City Council to consider voting to allow speeding up near the spaces used by our children,” Lightfoot said. “… I urge all residents to call their elder and tell them to vote against. We are all responsible for protecting our children, pedestrians and cyclists. It’s a matter of life and death – people need to slow down. “
[ Read the Tribune’s investigation into speed cameras here. ]
The commission discussed the plan last week, but amid much harsh criticism of Lightfoot’s standards, committee chairman Ald. Scott Waguespack closed the proceedings without a vote until Tuesday. This led supporters of the Beale ordinance to claim that Waguespack was buying time for the mayor to arrange the votes to defeat him.
A speed camera can be seen on West Lawrence Avenue, August 2, 2021, in Chicago. This camera captured the second highest speed after Mayor Lori Lightfoot began issuing tickets to drivers who drive at less than 6 miles per hour above the limit. (Erin Huli / Chicago Tribune)
Lightfoot reduced the minimum speeding fine as part of its 2021 budget, saying it would make city streets safer and said it had not done so to raise more money. Although she is campaigning with a promise to end Chicago’s “addiction” to fines and fees, the mayor said safety issues such as speeding deserve tighter enforcement.
However, the new standards have proved lucrative and have provoked loud criticism from Biel and others, who say the mayor is trying to balance Chicago books on the backs of the poor and working class who can’t afford the new $ 35 tickets each. the time they are arrested.
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The city shipped more than 1.6 million camera tickets for $ 35 in 2021, although Lightfoot’s new rules did not take effect until March. In the first two months alone, the city imposed $ 11 million in fines for those caught exceeding 6 to 10 miles per hour, a Tribune investigation found. Nearly 900,000 warnings were also sent to drivers caught driving at 6 to 9 miles per hour too fast in the month before the start of the lower threshold.
Drivers are also charged $ 35 if cameras catch them walking 10 mph above the limit, and $ 100 tickets go to those caught at 11 mph or more too fast. Mayor Ram Emmanuel introduced these guidelines for speed cameras in security zones around parks and schools, and the Beale ordinance would return to them.
It would be rare for Lightfoot to see the reverse of such a key initiative, but lawmakers are in favor of re-election early next year – as is the mayor herself – and this vote puts them in a difficult position.
The cameras are installed around parks and schools, where there are likely to be more pedestrians, cyclists and children. And while pedestrian and bicycle safety organizations are willing to support a minimum ticket of 6 miles per hour on the grounds that it makes drivers slow down, many Chicago drivers are outraged by another example of how the city is reducing them and locals are complaining. that cameras are often not. really very close to schools or parks.
Lightfoot included the change in its huge budget package for 2021, so they didn’t have to vote for it then. Now they are forced to choose parties on a divisive issue, not long before many of them face the electorate.
If Finance adopts Beale’s ordinance on Tuesday, the full city council will have to consider it on Wednesday.
Lopez is among several contenders who want to take down Lightfoot next year. Burke, the council’s longest-serving employee, is awaiting trial on federal allegations of corruption.
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