Drivers now can smile toward two new speed cameras introduced less than a week after the state Legislature canned efforts to restrict photo enforcement across Tennessee.
Officials stationed the new equipment near the 7500 block of Pinewood Drive headed west in East Brainerd and the 4400 block of St. Elmo Avenue headed south.
The cameras began snapping last Friday, and warning citations will be issued through June 5. Beginning June 6, violators will be ticketed and fined $50.
One St. Elmo Avenue resident said a speed deterrent is long overdue, remembering invitations that she sent out for an open house at her residence, invitations that warned against “crossing the highway of death.”
“My neighbors put fences up because drivers would rear-end each other or run off the road into private property,” said Marylu Clark, a retired schoolteacher.
Last Friday’s announcement of the new cameras arrived two days after state legislators blocked a proposed two-year moratorium on traffic cameras statewide. Lawmakers said they didn’t know enough information to restrict local governments.
Chattanooga Traffic Engineer John Van Winkle said Pinewood Drive is “flat like a racetrack” and said drivers use it as a convenient cut-through to enter busy thoroughfares such as Jenkins Road and Gunbarrel Road.
A traffic study showed that 15 percent of motorists traveling within the 7500 block of Pinewood Drive hit speeds exceeding 47 mph. The speed limit is 30 mph.
Mr. Van Winkle was unwilling to comment on how fast drivers must go to get a ticket, but he advised drivers simply to follow the rules when a “photo enforcement ahead” sign comes into view.
“How often do you see signs in advance of a radar setup? They’re not there,” he said. “We advertise that these cameras are there. We’re telling people to slow down. If you don’t, you’ll get a ticket.”
If drivers demonstrably “change behavior” at any of the city’s 12 camera locations, Mr. Van Winkle said officials could decide to move them to other “problem areas.”
Opposed to any sort of moratorium, city officials want to “help steer the Legislature” toward a comprehensive statute that would standardize photo enforcement across the state, Mr. Van Winkle said.
“If you’re going to legislate it, let’s legislate it with the confidence that they’re done properly,” he said, citing a lack of traffic studies and fair intervals to stop at red lights “in other jurisdictions.”