Eyes on the Street: Gompers Park Speed Cameras in Effect

In the video, one car will be issued a warning. Watch for the subtle flash reflecting against the trees.

Chicago's first two speed cameras started monitoring car traffic yesterday around the Gompers Park "children's safety zone" in North Mayfair. The speed cameras are at 4124 W Foster Avenue and 5119 N Pulaski Road and will only be issuing warnings for the first 30 days, as will be the case with all new cameras in the city (individual drivers also will also get a warning for their first infraction, wherever they incur it). By the end of the year, 50 speed cameras are scheduled to be installed citywide.

Automated enforcement has the potential to drastically improve compliance with the speed limit. When speed cameras were installed in Washington, D.C., the proportion of vehicles speeding by more than 10 mph dropped 82 percent. In Norway, speed cameras led to a 20 percent decline in traffic injuries.

These speed cameras will slow traffic on Foster Avenue, where a group of residents recently banded together as A New Foster Avenue and called on the Chicago Department of Transportation to improve safety. Marked crosswalks are provided at only some of the intersections on Foster, and in the one mile between Pulaski Road and Cicero Avenue, there are only two signalized intersections where residents can get to the park. While the cameras are no substitute for the physical street design changes that residents want to see, they will make it safer to access the park from the neighborhood.