Arlington County is nearly doubling the reach of the PhotoSPEED program it implemented in August 2024 to enforce safe driving in school zones.
As of Jan. 13, cameras in eight more locations will join the first 10, covering 18 of the county’s approximately 40 school zones and capturing data on vehicle volume and improper driving behavior, such as speeding.
All of the cameras work the same way, activating during school arrival and departure times, when signs and yellow flashing lights indicate that the speed limit is 20 miles per hour. Signs are also posted to let drivers know cameras are there.
“We want people to be aware of where these cameras are and ultimately make our roadway safer by slowing down,” says Ashley Savage, communications manager at the Arlington County Police Department (ACPD).
As in the fall, drivers captured on camera violating road rules will get a 30-day warning period. After that, ACPD will start issuing fines.
The cameras record video of all vehicles during school zone times and automatically flag any that exceed the 20 mph speed limit. A police officer reviews the footage, and if a violation is confirmed, a $100 ticket will be sent to the vehicle’s registered owner.
“Violations begin when you are going 31 [mph] or over,” Savage says. “The common violation that we are seeing is that people are driving 33 miles an hour, so it’s 13 miles above the posted speed limit. Ultimately, what we want the public to remember is that this is for our community safety. We know slower is safer.”
For the warning period that ran from Aug. 26-Sept. 25, more than 8,450 warnings were issued, Savage says. Between Sept. 26 and Nov. 25, 10,721 tickets were issued. Data for the last month of 2024 is still being processed, she adds.
“In some of the locations between the warning period and the ticket period, we did see a decline, and other ones we didn’t,” Savage says. “It’s too early in the data to necessarily say that we’re seeing any type of trend. Our ultimate goal is to see this decline over time. We want to see compliance with the posted speed limit.”
The county is unlikely to install more cameras before the current school year ends in June, she notes.
PhotoSPEED is part of the county’s Automated Safety Enforcement Program, which also includes PhotoRED to encourage red-light compliance. Both support Arlington’s Vision Zero program, which uses data to improve safety and eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries. (See the locations of some of Arlington’s top traffic crash zones here.)
Arlington adopted its Vision Zero policy in 2019, and the next year, Virginia enacted legislation to allow speed safety cameras in school and work zones. The Arlington County Board voted to change the county code to allow for safety cameras here in January 2022.
Falls Church implemented a similar photo-enforced school zone safety program last September in the Saint James Catholic School Zone at the 800 block of West Broad Street.
“One early takeaway from the program is that we’ve learned some drivers aren’t aware that speed limits in school zones can be lowered ‘dynamically’ during arrival or dismissal times,” Clare Bradley, a communications officer with the Falls Church Police Department, says in an email. “For the Saint James School Zone specifically, the speed limit around the 800 block of Broad Street (Route 7) drops from 25 mph to 20 mph when the flashing beacons on the 20 mph school zone speed limit signs are on—which is also when the speed safety cameras are operational.”
Although it’s too early to determine whether cameras in other places are necessary, she says, the city will re-evaluate its plans once it has more data.
“A 10 mph difference might not seem a lot while in your car, but driving 20 mph instead of 30 mph could mean life or death for someone struck by a vehicle—especially children, who are most vulnerable in the event of a crash,” Bradley says. “That’s the whole point of the speed safety camera program—to slow drivers down through behavior change and protect students as they go to and from school.”
In Arlington, here’s where the new cameras are:
- Northbound 700 block of North George Mason Drive
- Westbound 5800 block of Little Falls Road
- Westbound 4100 block of Lorcom Lane
- Southbound 2500 block of South Arlington Ridge Road
- Eastbound 5800 block of Williamsburg Boulevard
- Southbound 1000 block of North McKinley Road
- Eastbound 3500 block of Second Street South
- Northbound 1600 block of North Veitch Street