Baltimore City officials plan to award contracts worth nearly $10 million on Wednesday to two companies that will relaunch the city’s once-troubled speed and red light camera system as early as June.
The Baltimore Sun reports:
American Traffic Solutions will be paid $5.4 million to run the city’s speed camera system and Conduent Inc. will be paid $4.2 million to run the red light camera system, according to a proposal under consideration by the city’s spending panel. A third firm, MRA Digital LLC, will be paid $80,000 to calibrate the cameras annually.
Mayor Catherine Pugh plans to relaunch Baltimore’s speed and red light camera system to generate $8 million in revenue for next fiscal year and get drivers to slow down. The five-year contracts include two options to renew for two years each.
City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young, who is chairman of the five-member Board of Estimates that will vote on the contracts Wednesday, said he supports the mayor’s proposal.
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In announcing the program’s return in March, Pugh said the cameras have “always been considered a revenue-producing tool.” But, she said, they also would encourage safer driving.
Young said city transportation officials have assured him the program will have better oversight scrutiny than previous iterations. Tickets will be reviewed by the companies, a transportation official and a police officer.
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All camera locations will be published on the city’s website before the program launches. The program will begin no earlier than June and then will issue warning citations for a month. And it will be a much smaller system: 10 red-light cameras, 10 fixed speed cameras and 10 portable cameras.
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Maryland law allows jurisdictions to issue $40 speed camera tickets to vehicles traveling 12 miles per hour or more over the speed limit. Red light camera tickets carry a $75 fine.
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