Here’s one of the two newly installed traffic cameras on Santiam Road, presumably still inactive on Tuesday night, July 22, 2025.
A Facebook post drew my attention Tuesday to the installation of Albany’s third set of traffic cameras, on Santiam Road at Geary Street. The bike took me there on Tuesday night.
Once they go active, the cameras will watch for red-light and speed violations in both direction on Santiam, which according to the Linn County historical marker follows the route of the Santiam Wagon Road.
The speed limit on Santiam is 25 miles an hour. The cameras presumably will catch drivers who sail through a green light at the intersection going 36 mph or faster.
This is not a dangerous intersection, according to police statistics. It does not appear on the police department’s published list of Albany intersections where crashes occurred in 2024.
Whether these cameras will generate any revenue for the city won’t be known until the devices are activated. Whenever that is, the police say no tickets will be issued for violations for one month after the cameras go live.
We do know that the cameras at this intersection will cost the city $6,000 a month whether they catch any violations or not. The fee is specified in the five-year contract the city signed with Verra Mobility, the Arizona company that owns and operates the machines. (hh)
And here’s the other one, next to the sign designating the historical Santiam Wagon Road.
I don’t want Albany turning into Salem. I think the city needs to focus on other priorities
So many better things to do with this money. FIX OUR STREETS for 1. The city of Albany wants to act like a big city and all they are doing is running it in the ground further yet!
Queen and Elm has cameras now too. They’ve been installed for about a week.
Imposing privately owned traffic cameras sounds very Trumpian. How unwoke is that?
If residents perceive that Albany is prioritizing profit over public safety, then these cameras will undermine trust in city government and its commitment to achieve racial equity and social justice.
Will Albany publish data so its citizens can understand the disproportionate impact these cameras will probably have on protected groups like low-income, minority, LGBTQ+, and undocumented people?
We’re not allowed to study that DEI bs anymore, remember
“Unwoke” and “protected.” Omit those and I (or a further-left version of me) couldn’t have written a better example of one kind of liberalism.
Do “protected groups like low-income, minority, LGBTQ+, and undocumented people” speed more than the rest of the public? I doubt that they do, so I don’t understand your concern for them.
Unfortunately, Shadle’s parodies are lost to some readers.
One of my concerns is social justice. For example, what if Albany allows the photos & data to be shared with Trump’s secret police (ICE)? That would just slam shut the doors of opportunity for many undocumented people.
And just think of the potential for economic injustice. Issuing tickets to poor folks just traps them in a cycle of debt. Maybe Albany should do what Norway does – connect the fines resulting from automated traffic cameras to income. Make those rich folks who drive Saabs, for example, pay disproportionally for their traffic tickets.
There is a group advocating for the oppressed who get traffic tickets –
https://finesandfeesjusticecenter.org/
Check em’ out….
Big Brother is alive and well in Albany, Oregon.
5000 a month out of our community seems sad. for a few bucks back to city hall. A poor decision by greedy politicians.
Actually, 6,000 bs dollars
Let’s not forget about queen andGeary or northalbany rd at thorton lake dr.Rat traps
Wow,72 k a year the city will pay. Over priced in my book!!
The light at Elm and Queen has also been installed.
Drones dropping trash cans and saws to cut them down just like the United Kingdom
A police presence would do so much more. You know, write tickets up close & personal on a semi regular basis and the people will conform. Plus think of all the drugs they’d find as the MJ smoke slowly wafts out the window.
I have NEVER seen a cop pull someone over for “buzzing” a bicycle. A common enough occurrence on Pacific Blvd. with semis and other jerks. Also, major intersections that have a right turn lane with the bicycle lane going through. Drivers cutting you off when in the solid line section because they refuse to slow down a bit and yield as they rush up to a stop light.
Until the police actually protect & serve, why would anybody respect them? Albany Police have slowly poisoned my attitude in the 45 years I have lived here. They can KMA!
As somebody who has lived around Albany for over 50 years, I have never had a run in or been stopped by an Albany Policeman, and I have not witnessed the bad behavior you suggest is rampant in Albany. I suspect you are a poor driver which results in the activities you find distasteful. Hartman probably has the same complaints so may be it is from being a liberal.
I forgot to add about my driving- I have never been TICKETED by an Albany cop, just stopped probably at least 100 times because I worked in Corvallis & came home in the “wrong hours” for 15 years. I did back into a car in 1967 and had a few speeding tickets the 3 years I owned my 750 Triumph, but that was a different state 50 years ago.
That’s just stupid thinking.
Begs the question, why this intersection and not the others that have higher number of incidences. Begs the question, who made this decision (and where is accountability for this decision if it is unwise and unfair).
Wanna make Albany a nicer place to live or visit? In addition to speed cameras, install “noise cameras.”
For a good overview, see the Google AI result of “automated vehicle noise enforcement” WITHOUT the quotes. Or a more cumbersome search on bing.com (the 30-second version) for additional stuff.
I have an answer you might like for the inevitable civil liberties complaints.
I guess the city feels crime is a sign of prosperity and progressive forward movement. Albany remaining a well adjusted community goes against being an advanced society of complicated living and behavior. We simpletons that believe we should invest in people are outdated. Throwing money at anything useless just makes rich people richer and poor people poorer. No one needs a decent job to pay for traffic fines.
Ya gotta love the folks “complaining” about the cameras along these lines:
“Wahhh – I got caught speeding”
“Wahhh – I got caught running a red light!”
“It’s not my fault!”
“It’s just a money-grab by politicians!”
“It’s a waste of our money!
“Just hire more cops to do the same job!”
Funny, no one seems to be denying these scofflaws did, in fact, break the “law” around speeding and red-lights — as if some folks think they may have some inalienable right to do so? Laughable for sure…
These are rigged. I have an acquaintance that can trigger the light heading S. on Geary by simply abruptly stopping close to the crosswalk. How many people making a legit R. turn got screwed on that one?
Simply using the officers they have on a regular basis is a strong deterrent IF they are actually out there. Enough of your delusion.
That’s OK Bill… I’ll take my delusion over your paranoia. :-)
City money grab that’s not tied to dmv
So don’t pay the city there are no consequences…….learned it the easy way years ago on a red light camera…not a city resident
I am glad to see more of these. I am getting tired of people who run red lights and speed. I have almost been taken out by ahol red light runners on more than one occasion and now I hesitate when a light turns green. I hope they place even more.
Thank you for writing this. More bad drivers i see daily for past years living here. It is expensive proposition to have cameras in so many intersections, but with so many bad drivers what can be the outcome? People getting hurt or worse is unacceptable. Just slow down! Then cameras will go away.
I suspect you are the bad driver and probably drive below the speed limit which causes drivers to swerve around your car. I’ve driven all over the US and Albany drivers are as good or better than other drivers in the US.
Typical provincial attitude. No evidence for your prejudice. I ride a motorcycle and have very fast car. I’m under age 55, my reflexes are faster than your, boomer, and as a rider see the bad drivers up close and too personal daily. I think I saw you yesterday – was that you texting while driving, or were you coming back from a 7 martini lunch? See what happens when we “assume”?
Has any of the people that support using the cameras considered that the city is depending on people consistently breaking the law to pay for all these cameras. What if the cameras work and there is not enough revenue to pay for them? Does anyone really want there to be enough traffic lawbreakers to support having them? If the bigger cities with more funds and space would help the homeless our police would be able to monitor the traffic as they have done in the past. The city is forcing its residents to carry more burdens than they can handle. It is not complaining when people want safety to be the most important result.