Oakland’s Speed Camera Numbers Are In. Here’s What They Mean.

By Vice President Will Barnow

Oakland, California’s speed safety cameras completed their first full month of enforcement with approximately 82,000 citations issued across 35 cameras at 18 locations. That’s a number worth putting in context.

High citation volumes at the start of a program aren’t a surprise — they’re a confirmation that there’s a big problem. These cameras were placed on streets with documented histories of dangerous speeding. When enforcement goes live on corridors like Hegenberger Road, where a driver was clocked at 55.3 mph, the data reflects a problem that existed long before the cameras did.

What changes is what comes next. San Francisco launched its program in early 2025, and within six months, speeding dropped 72 percent. Average speeds fell by 4 mph, and roughly 20,000 fewer vehicles per day were recorded speeding. Within a year the program was being credited for an 80% decline in speeding – that means 40,000 fewer instances of dangerous speeding in the city every day! Now the number of drivers speeding near camera locations is down to two percent.

San Francisco was the first city to implement this program; Oakland is the second. With time, I anticipate that Oakland will see similar success to their Bay Area neighbor – something that will benefit all road users, not just drivers.

It’s also worth noting that under AB 645, citation revenue can be reinvested in traffic calming infrastructure on these same corridors: speed tables, protected intersections, and physical improvements that compound the program’s safety benefits.

Oakland’s Department of Transportation will release a more comprehensive analysis in the coming months. I’m looking forward to it. More than that, I’m looking forward to the report we’ll be able to write in a year – one focused not on citation volume, but on the lives these cameras saved.

In San Francisco, the speed program has been credited with a 42 percent drop in traffic deaths. That’s the measure that matters!