By Patrick Andriesen | Illinois Policy Institute
Chicago speed cameras collected $28 million less in ticket revenue through September than during the first nine months of 2023, but two things could drastically change that.
First, city leaders have considered lowering the citywide speed limit from 30 to 25 mph.
Second, Mayor Brandon Johnson has an initial OK for more speed cams to raise $11 million next year to restore police positions related to the federal consent decree.
During his campaign, Johnson told voters a lower speed limit was nothing but a “cash grab.” He promised to eliminate speed cameras, calling them “regressive taxation.”
But now that he wants a budget that spends nearly $1 billion more than Chicago will receive, it is clear he sees speed cameras as money machines. Regressive taxation and cash grabs are OK when he needs cash.
Speed cameras issued $54 million worth of fines between January and September 2024, which was $28 million less than during the same period a year earlier. They still slapped motorists with a ticket every 20 seconds, Chicago Department of Finance data shows.
While 1.18 million tickets were issued, just 804,197 carried fines and the rest were warnings, according to a Freedom of Information Act request. Two-thirds of the fines were paid on time, but more than half of the revenue came from late fees.
Late penalties more than double the cost of a speed camera ticket, turning a $35 fine into an $85 ticket or a $100 fine into a $244 ticket.
About $35.2 million worth of the ticket revenue came from $35 fines for driving 6-10 mph over the posted speed limit, with one-third of those tickets incurring a late fee.
The remaining $18.8 million in revenue came from 11 mph-plus tickets, which incurred late penalties at an even higher rate of 41%.
A lower speed limit could hit Chicago drivers hard: one city saw speed camera tickets increase 81% when it dropped its limit. After 18 months, the revenues were still 75% higher, according to the Journal of Public Economics.
That was essentially Chicago’s experience after former Mayor Lori Lightfoot lowered the speed camera threshold to fine drivers for going 6-10 mph over the limit. Chicago speed cameras churned out eight times as many tickets per day in the seven months after Lightfoot’s change.
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