Baltimore approves renewal of contract for I-83 speed cameras following decrease in crashes

Baltimore’s Board of Estimates voted to approve a $16 million extension of the city’s contract for speed cameras Wednesday, including two on Interstate 83.

The extension, which will cover the cost of the 160 cameras through May 2024, was approved by the board over the objections of Council President Nick Mosby, one of the spending board’s five members.

Mosby argued the city should maintain the speed cameras along the interstate in-house with Department of Transportation employees. The city should be able operate the cameras for less than the $6.5 million the contract requires to maintain the cameras annually, he said.

Data collected since the installation of the cameras shows drivers have slowed down in response to their presence and crashes have decreased. Tickets are issued to drivers caught traveling at least 12 mph over the speed limit.

As of May, 283,696 citations had been issued from the two cameras that began enforcement on July 13, 2022. That was well short of the 656,000 citations officials projected they would issue in the first year of the program.

Crash data, provided by the Department of Transportation to Comptroller Bill Henry’s office, showed there were 399 crashes on the Baltimore stretch of I-83 in 2021. That number dropped to 293 in 2022. (The cameras were not activated until July of that year.) Thus far in 2023, 215 crashes have been reported.

A Baltimore Sun analysis using data obtained via a Public Information Act request showed crashes in the proximity of the cameras, which are near the former Pepsi bottling plant in Hampden, dropped steeply compared to the previous year. From July 13 to Dec. 31, 2022, 18 crashes were recorded. During that same period in 2021, 55 crashes were reported. The Sun analyzed crashes between Falls Road and Cold Spring Lane.

Baltimore does not own the speed cameras and instead pays Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions to operate them. An existing contract with the vendor was amended in November 2021 to add $6.6 million to lease the cameras through August 2023. That figure was based on the city’s projection of 150,000 citations per month, equating to a $925,000 monthly fee.

Department of Transportation officials argued Wednesday that the decrease in crashes and driver speeds on the roadway make the cameras worthy of renewal.

While the cameras have been effective from a safety standpoint, they have underperformed in citations issued when compared to projections — creating a hole in the city’s fiscal year 2023 budget. The Department of Transportation budgeted for $38.3 million in revenue from the cameras in fiscal year 2023 but came up about $30 million short. Only $8 million in revenue is budgeted from the cameras in fiscal year 2024 which began July 1. About $2 million was received by the end of October.

Revenue from the I-83 cameras must be dedicated to the operation of the cameras or improvements to the highway, based upon stipulations from the General Assembly. City officials are first responsible to pay for the lease of the cameras, then can put additional funds toward repairs.

In the first year of operation, Baltimore was able to put about $1.5 million in revenue toward repairs. The rest of the approximately $8 million went to contractor American Traffic Solutions.

The increase approved Wednesday covers more than the maintenance of the cameras on I-83. Ten new citywide cameras and highway cameras would be installed and deployed through May 2024 under the agreement.

Mosby argued the city could operate the interstate cameras at less expense than $6.5 million annually.

Phillip Mellerson, a representative for the DOT who manages the traffic camera program, said the agency couldn’t match the vendor’s expertise in construction and installation of cameras nor maintenance, which must be performed constantly on the cameras.

“I think we can kind of learn the skill set,” Mosby said.

Mayor Brandon Scott, also a board member, argued cities across the country contract for speed camera services. The expenditure is “strategic” and in keeping with best practices elsewhere, he said.

“This is not being strategic,” Mosby argued, urging city officials to at minimum separate the contract for the interstate speed cameras from the city’s contract for cameras citywide.

Henry argued the reduction in crashes was enough reason to support the contract extension.

“Money is nice, but keeping people from running into each other on 83 is really the point,” he said.

Henry said he would support, however, a pilot program in which city employees do the maintenance of the cameras on the highway.

“It would behoove us to listen to the only elected engineer on the board,” Henry said of Mosby, who was an electrical engineer prior to being elected to public office.

Baltimore Sun reporter Annie Jennemann contributed to this article.