[mappress]

In case you haven’t heard yet, the north College Park’s first speed camera to start giving out tickets by the end of this week. The first of two cameras will go operational on Rhode Island Avenue near the Duvall field by the week end. The second camera will go live later near Rhode Island Ave. and University Blvd.

As I reported earlier, the first speed camera in the City went live last Monday along the Paintbranch Avenue Parkway.

I knew that the caemras would be coming to our part of the city at some point, but I was a bit surprised to see them coming so soon.

There are a few issues for which I was particularly puzzled about these cameras on Rhode Island Avenue.

  • Lack of Warning: Unlike the camera on Paintbranch Parkway, which was first installed last month and gave out warnings (instead of actual tickets) for an entire month, motorists will not get any warning from this camera in north College Park. It looks like that the City planned to install NCP cameras last month when they installed the one on the Paint Branch Pkwy, however it took them a while to get permission from the SHA (State’s Highway Administration) and the County’s Public Works Dept., thus they couldn’t provide 30 days warning period in our area. (Is this a lack of planning on City’s part or what?) The good news for the City is that the State only requires that the City undergo the warning period at one of the camera locations, thus they can go off the hook.
  • Time of Operation: These caemras  Rhode Island Avneue will be issuing tickets only during day time. This is so because they will be installed in an area called “school zone”. Unfortunately, traffics on Rhode Island remains bumper-to-bumper during the rush hours, and thus unfortunately the cameras won’t be able to stop speeding during evening period.
  • Location: Keeping the student safety in mind, I’m not sure if Duvall Field is the ideal location for the first camera. The place where I’ve seen most students cross the street is around Edgewood Rd. and Rhode Island Avenue. This is where the students cross Rhode Island to go to the Hollywood elementary school and nearly a mile away from Duvall field location.
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