Chicago City Wire

Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas is vowing to dismantle speed cameras now set up in neighborhoods across the city if he is elected in the April 4 runoff. on Mar 30th.

‘These cameras and the fees and the fines that are levied are just punishing the working poor most, and it’s really causing a devastating impact on poor communities,” Vallas added at the presser. Again, Clear Path goes a long way to address economic and racial equity concerns about

Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her reelection. Mayoral Candidates Johnson and Paul Vallas will face each other during the April 4 election.

Vallas' rival in the April 4 runoff, Cook County Commissioner Johnson has also vowed to do away with the cameras, adding “and if we can’t, wherever a speed ticket has been accumulated, or acquired, that ZIP code should get the revenue.”

Vallas called out Johnson for wanting to defund the police. Johnson argued giving that money to the community would improve the community’s lives, adding people are in dire living conditions.

While a recent University of Illinois at Chicago study found that the city’s speed camera program prevented more than 200 injury and fatality crashes between 2015 and 2017, researchers also highlighted that a disproportionate number of cars whose drivers committed camera-recorded violations are registered in predominantly Black or Latino areas.

“People are acting out of desperation,” Johnson said to WGN. “You have to pay attention to cries people have, there’s no way to embrace [looting].”

Originally Chicago speed cameras only issued tickets to drivers going 10 mph or more over the speed limit, but the threshold was lowered to 6 mph in early 2021 and ticketing data proves that the change has been very effective in encouraging safer driving speeds. Chicago’s default speed limit is 30 mph, and federal studies show that a person struck at 36 mph will usually die.