Motorists are confronted with new speed cameras in McKinley Park and Pilsen
Speed camera on West Cermak Road, a busy thoroughfare in Pilsen, where the speed limit is 20 miles per hour on school days. The new speed camera is next to Juárez Community Academy.
Chicago-Guillermo García was driving one Friday morning from his home in Marquette Park to Pilsen to meet some friends for breakfast when he decided to take Archer Avenue from Damen to Ashland.
To his surprise García was confronted with a speed camera in the 3200 block of South Archer Avenue, a camera that was not there the last time he drove through McKinley Park.
To his relief the camera flashed at two cars that were driving in the opposite direction but the sudden appearance of the speed camera there caught García, 65, by complete surprise.
“I didn’t know there was one there,” said García. “I believe that they should announce that there is a speed camera at least a half mile or quarter of a mile away.”
García, a retired worker from the University of Illinois at Chicago, said that with his retirement income he cannot afford to pay a $100 ticket.
“A lot of people such as I are very disgusted with these speed and red light cameras,” García told El BeiSMan.
According to Citizens to Abolish Red Light Cameras there are 348 red light cameras at intersections in the city and 126 speed cameras spread out throughout Chicago.
The speed camera located next to a used auto parts yard on Archer near Wood is just the latest in an ever growing number of cameras that keep vigil on Chicago’s streets and intersections.
Mulberry Park is hidden away on Robinson Street but the speed camera is north of here on busy Archer Avenue. No children were playing there when El BeiSMan visited on a recent day.
According to the city the speed camera was installed because there is a park nearby but the park, Mulberry Playlot Park is at 3150 S. Robinson St., a tiny play lot about two blocks south away from Archer Avenue.
In fact the lot is so small that on a recent day visited by El BeiSMan, there were no children there at all.
Mark Wallace, executive director of Citizens to Abolish Red Light Cameras (CTARLC) told El BeiSMan that there is not even a crosswalk near where the new speed camera was installed.
Similarly, said Wallace, the rest of the speed cameras elsewhere were installed by the city as a safety measure but Wallace questions whether this is so.
“We don’t have an epidemic of children being hit by cars,” said Wallace.
Groups like CTARLC say the cameras are a city revenue enhancing measure disguised as a safety issue.
Some speed camera locations defy logic such as a speed camera on Western Avenue between Pershing and Archer Avenue.
At that site there already red light cameras at the Pershing and Western Avenue intersection but there is also a speed camera just a few steps away from there.
Yet there are never any pedestrians crossing in the middle of that stretch of Western Avenue, except at the two stop lights at Pershing and at Archer Avenue.
Citing figures from the Chicago Department of Transportation, Wallace said red light cameras, on the contrary, cause rear end collisions among motorists faced with a sudden stop by a motorist in front of them who suddenly tries to avoid crossing the yellow light at an intersection.
“Intersections with red light cameras cause five times more accidents than they prevent,” said Wallace.
Pilsen, too, has a new speed camera next to Juarez Community Academy. A sign there warns motorists that section of Cermak Road is “photo enforced” and going beyond the 20-mile speed limit on school days can result in a traffic ticket.
With the high tech cameras the tickets are issued automatically if a motorists drives above the posted speed limit.
Most cops, argues Wallace, would not give a motorist a ticket for going from four to six miles per hour over a speed limit on the road.
Across the country groups such as CTARLC are trying to reverse the trend and abolish red light and speed cameras within a city altogether.
At least 33 cities and towns across the country have voted to end red light camera vigilance of motorists at intersections.
One big issue in camera traffic enforcement is that cameras are not 100 percent foolproof and mistakes can be made as when the Chicago Tribune found that cameras at an intersection in the South Side did not allowed motorists enough time to navigate the yellow light before the traffic sign changed to red.
The city of Chicago ended up throwing away many of those alleged violations.
Groups across the country say camera enforcement is an unfair process because motorists can’t argue against a red light camera photograph when there could be other mitigating circumstances.
“The system is not set up for a motorist to have a fair say so against an accusation,” said Wallace who went as far as saying the red light and speed camera vigilance within the city is “unconstitutional.”
“This is no way a city government should be treating its citizens,” said Wallace to El BeiSMan.
To add insult to injury, Citizens to Abolish Red Light Cameras argue there are more red light and speed cameras in the South Side of the city where most Hispanics and African Americans live than in the North Side where most residents are white.
The new speed camera on the left catches motorists unaware on Archer Avenue near Wood Street in the McKinley Park neighborhood. Motorists say the speed camera there is unnecessary.
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Antonio Zavala. Journalist, lives in Pilsen. He studied journalism at University of California, Berkeley, and in Roosevelt University, Chicago.
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