San Francisco Castro District residents celebrate effectiveness of speed cameras at intersections

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — We’ve been following the impact of the speed cameras San Francisco installed at several major intersections earlier this year.

A community in the Castro says they’ve been seeing a change on their busiest streets.

The Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association organized a party to celebrate speed cameras at an intersection in San Francisco’s Castro District.

Volunteers held signs and gave out donuts on Market and Danvers Streets, not far from the location of the speed cameras.

MORE: Where SF speed cameras are located, how much it will cost you if you’re caught speeding

The Walk SF organization and Supervisor Rafael Mandelman were at the event.

“We’re all interested in the street safety here. The Castro, in particular, is a very pedestrian area,” said Matt Biggar, Eureka Valley Neighborhood Association board member. “We have lots of people walking around all the time for the shops, the neighbors, the visitors, and so this is a party to celebrate making it safer.”

Speed cameras were installed in 33 locations in San Francisco between March and June to try to deter speeders.

Drivers caught on these cameras speeding at least 11 miles per hour over the speed limit are being fined anywhere between $50 and $500, depending on their speed and even income.

“The impacts of speeding on this stretch have been really bad for a number of years,” said District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. “I think the entire time that I have been in office, I’ve been hearing from these neighbors. Buildings have been crashed into, multiple buildings along the route have been crashed into by speeding cars. And, you know, cars parked along Market have been crashed into, so speeding here is a big problem, and they’ve been asking for solutions for a long time.”

MORE: SF speed cameras now giving citations, but how will the city get it right?

He tells ABC7 the city’s seen about a 15% decrease in speeding here since the cameras have been up; it has seen a 7% decrease at San Jose Avenue from 29th to 30th Street; and at Guerrero from 19th to 20th Street it has seen an 18% decrease.

“Speeding is the number one cause of severe and fatal crashes in San Francisco,” said Marta Lindsey, of Walk SF. “So this is just about protecting human life and for drivers too, like you don’t want to get in a crash, you don’t want to hurt anybody.”

ABC7 reached out to SFMTA asking how many speed light camera citations they’ve issued and they said they don’t have that data yet. But we’ll keep pushing for it.

Mandelman’s office said more than 70% of vehicles that were issued a warning have not received a second-suggesting driver behavior is changing. And, across all camera locations, average daily speeding events dropped over 30% between week one and week seven of camera activation.