Montgomery County Police Expands Safe Speed Program; Announces New Corridor Approach

[Howard Hartman]

	DEPARTMENT OF POLICE MEDIA SERVICES DIVISION 2350 RESEARCH BOULEVARD ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND 20850-3294
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 3, 2012	FOR MORE INFORMATION:                         Media Services Division, 240-773-5030

Montgomery County Police Expands Safe Speed Program;
Announces New Corridor Approach

Related Reference: Montgomery County Fixed-pole Speed Cameras Map

The Montgomery County Police Department’s Safe Speed program is expanding to include 18 additional automated enforcement locations throughout the county which are shown below. These new automated speed enforcement locations are the result of an assessment of the currently monitored locations and community requests for additional enforcement sites.

The deployment of portable speed camera units (PCU’s) in these new locations will begin within the next two weeks. These cameras will be set to only flash at drivers when a violation occurs for the first week of the deployment, and the issuance of citations for violations will begin during the second week of operation. The Safe Speed program is adding the 10 new PCU’s to its current complement of speed camera equipment which includes 6 mobile vans, 10 PCU’s, and 56 fixed pole sites.

In addition to the new automated enforcement locations, the police department is also announcing a new approach to the deployment of speed cameras. For years, the department has deployed speed cameras at specific sites on the roadways monitored by the Safe Speed program. As a result, drivers have become familiar with the speed camera locations and slow down only in the area in which the speed camera is located. After passing the speed camera, drivers resume speeding.

The new corridor approach that will be implemented this month was patterned after a similar strategy used in Europe. Entire roadways, rather than specific sites, are monitored by speed cameras that are continuously moved throughout the length of the monitored roadway. This strategy encourages drivers to respect the speed limit for the entire stretch of the monitored roadway.

The goal of the Safe Speed program is to increase safety and affect driver behavior by reducing the speed of vehicles traveling on County roadways. This goal continues to be one of voluntary compliance. Therefore, additional signage will be placed on the monitored roadways notifying motorists that they are approaching an automated speed enforcement area. Also, the 67 newly designated roadways, or corridors, that will be monitored by speed cameras, as well as the existing 56 fixed pole cameras that remain in place, will be published on the police department’s website. However, the police department will no longer announce the exact locations of the mobile camera or on which roadways the cameras will be at any given time.

Under Maryland law, speed camera citations are issued when the speed limit is exceeded by more than 11 MPH. Speed camera citations are issued to the registered owner of the vehicle that is in violation of the speed limit.

Portable Speed Camera Locations

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