West Seattle’s Gatewood Elementary is one of four schools citywide whose speed zones have been chosen by the Seattle Police Department for fixed speeder-catching cameras. That’s according to an SPD report to be delivered during this Tuesday’s meeting of the City Council Transportation Committee. The report explains:
The radar-based devices will issue tickets only when the school beacons are flashing (during school hours). Speed violators will be issued tickets with variable fines that will match the cost of a ticket that would otherwise be issued by an officer.
According to the report, the camera should be up and running before school starts September 5th; we’ll be checking this week on installation status.
The same document (which is dated June 11th) includes a status report on the city’s “speed van,” which was first shown off outside Gatewood almost four years ago (WSB coverage here). The report details multiple problems that plagued the van and forced its replacement last spring, while noting the new one is much simpler for officers to use, and had double the “capture rate” once it was deployed before last school year ended.
UPDATE, 4:44 PM MONDAY: Just talked with SPD’s program manager for this, who says, first of all, they have since updated the memo – the fines are not variable; they are fixed – $189. The camera will be on Fauntleroy, and will be installed sometime in the next few weeks.
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