How safety cameras slow down drivers in school zones

On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Garrett Dawe, engineer of traffic and safety for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), talks about a pilot project to study the use of safety cameras for automated enforcement in school zones. 

An appropriation in the Fiscal Year 2025 state budget called for MDOT to conduct a pilot project on automated speed enforcement in school zones. Dawe explains that his team has been studying proposals and will make an announcement soon of a vendor to conduct the pilot. 

According to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS) and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), at least 12 states (Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Washington) conduct school-zone automated speed enforcement. In Georgia and Rhode Island, school zones are the only locations where automated speed enforcement is allowed in the state. 

According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) statistics, between 2011 and 2020,  218 school-age children (ages 18 and younger) died in school transportation-related crashes; 44 were occupants of school transportation vehicles, 83 were occupants of other vehicles, 85 were pedestrians, five were bicyclists and one was an “other” nonoccupant.