The north-facing camera on North Albany Road, photographed on March 11, 2025.
The Albany City Council, the city administration and the police all say the expanded photo enforcement of traffic laws should increase safety in Albany traffic. How can we tell if that’s the case?
The newest set of red-light and speed cameras is operating on North Albany Road at Thornton Lake Drive, one leg of which is the driveway to North Albany Middle School.
City Manager Peter Troeddson told the council in his weekly summary Friday that the warning period for the cameras on North Albany Road had ended. He added:
“During the period, driver behaviors varied from day to day, and week to week. The number of violations was highest on Mondays when school was in session, followed by Tuesday, then plateauing Wednesday thru Friday. Violations on Saturday and Sunday were minimal. APD has been processing, on average, about 100 violations daily from BOTH intersections with photo enforcement.”
I wish he had reported the actual numbers for North Albany. That might be one way to tell whether those cameras are having any useful effect other than costing the city money.
And what exactly are the violations? Exceeding the posted speed, or running a red light? Speeding presumably won’t result in a ticket if it’s 10 mph or less above the posted limit, while running a red light is always worth a ticket in the mail.
Albany is paying Verra Mobility, the Arizona vendor of the traffic camera systems, $6,000 per month per intersection. (That is $3,000 per camera per month, and each intersection has two cameras.)
On North Albany Road at Thornton Lake Drive, there have been no crashes, as far as I could tell from the monthly crash reports available on the police department’s website.
This is not a dangerous stretch of road, even if traffic rolls through there slightly above 20 mph during school hours and slightly faster than 40 at other times. So if it’s safe already, how will it be safer once the reported violations become tickets that someone has to pay?
Troedsson also told the council:
“Implementation at the two additional intersections (Queen/Elm and Geary/Santiam) is progressing. The permits are under review and construction is expected to occur by the end of May. The projected completion timeline for all four intersections with photo enforcement is July 1. During the summer, we anticipate about 150-200 violations per day, combined. When school is in session beginning in September, this number may reach 300 combined, daily. We also anticipate driving behavior changes: the number of violations on a daily basis are expected to plateau at a much lower number.”
When the camera systems at four intersections are all operating, Albany will pay Verra Mobility at least $288,000 a year. In order to break even, the council has to hope the city can collect at least that much from Albany drivers.
I hope the council will ask for monthly reports on how photo enforcement is going. How much is it costing, and how has traffic safety improved as a result? (hh)
In my opinion traffic is less safe on North Albany road because as soon as you hit anywhere near the light on Thornton lake people slam to 20 mph whether it is school in session or not. That unanticipated and sometimes sudden drop in speed is dangerous in my eyes. Not to mention annoying as all get out. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I think these traffic light cameras are scam
Following too close is also illegal and that means at any speed!♂️♂️
Yes, sounds like your following too close.
I’m not following too close guys thanks for jumping to conclusions! But the people behind sometimes are as are the people in front of me. I’m saying people are so afraid of getting a ticket they slow down to twenty mph no matter what time it is. I also am an advocate for the flashing lights in school zones. That seems like a much better system. A safer system.
A blinking light warning drivers of the 20 mph school zone would work as well. With photo enforcement many cars slow to 15 and the only cars I have seen run the red light are the cars coming from the middle school.
How many cameras can we buy if we lay off the Police Dept?
IMO I would rather have a staffed police car replace the cameras any day. A trained police officer can exercise judgement, can be present and scanning for more than just traffic violations, and can actually lend help when any problem/accident occurs.
We would need to rethink our police department to have officers available and present in those spots that need more oversight than others.
That was my point.
“I hope the council will ask for monthly reports on how photo enforcement is going. How much is it costing, and how has traffic safety improved as a result? (hh)”
If they don’t, can’t you file a FOIA request?
As someone who lives on a side street between the school and the train tracks the cameras have been a huge success. Cars have slowed down significantly, allowing us to enter North Albany Road much easier and safely.
How much time is spent by a sworn officer reviewing those photos? That’s an addition al cost to be added in and takes him/her off the street. I have been told that “No One Is Available” to respond to a call for service.
As long as the city keeps them calibrated they’ll be OK. Believe if it isn’t done they’ll lose money for being lazy at policing.
It would be interesting to see the numbers before and after the camera installation. Living off N Albany road and trying to cross that intersection as a pedestrian has been very scary at times. You don’t notice it so much while driving. But I for one have almost been hit while people speeded down that hill. Then as soon as they get through the school zone they speed up again only to slam on their brakes to stop at the light at Hickory or….. yes they run the light. I have noticed it looks like young… maybe teen drivers but not sure.
I read previously that the cameras would synchronize with the school schedule.
What violations does the manager refer to on Saturday and Sunday? (Schools closed!)
Either speed violations above 40 mph or red light violations, presumably.
I appreciate you for asking these questions, Hasso. The City really needs a councilor with a stronger grasp on data & statistics, and how to use it in decision-making. It’s infuriating we can afford to install a camera at Santiam & Geary, when – as you reported – the most dangerous intersection is a 1-minute drive north. When The Banks was developed, Bowman Park residents expressed concerns about traffic & safety at the Geary and Salem intersection with such a sharp increase in density. The City decided no traffic mitigation was necessary, and apparently still doesn’t.
I feel awful for the kind folks who operate the convenience store on that corner. Their property has been damaged in these accidents, and they’ve had to hear and see the wreckage of countless others. I work from home, and constantly hear cars peeling out and drag racing through the neighborhood. I’ve lived here several years, and rarely see traffic enforcement.
HH, thanks for the follow-up. Good article
Only those that speed or run lights should have issues with the cameras
The issue I have is the cost. I would think there would be other payment options that, long term, would be far less expensive for the city. E.g. purchasing up front, fee sharing, separate maintenance agreement, etc. Just seems very expensive given the hardware/software behind it
Well I think the speed limits of 40mph and 45mph on Gibson Hill Road is way to fast anyway! If those speeds changed then drivers wouldn’t be slowing down so fast at the 20mph school zone because they’d already be going only 30mph or 35mph.
Maine, Mississippi, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Texas, and West Virginia have all outlawed these cameras. There are several other states in the process of outlawing them also ( Nebraska, Montana and Idaho I believe) for good reason! It’s not the fact of having the cameras, it’s who’s running them and how they’re paid for. we have a big problem of counting our chickens before they hatch here in Albany. And if I remember correctly they already filled a whole entire position on the police force from anticipating how much money they’re going to be making on these cameras? I might be wrong on that
The company has also been involved in many public corruption & kickback cases.
It seems to me that the cameras are also going off when drivers are waiting to turn left towards the middle school. They are in the intersection on a yellow turn arrow yielding to oncoming traffic. They then complete the turn when the light turns red and the oncoming traffic stops.
It is illegal to enter an intersection if you can not fully cross it before the light turns red.
https://www.oregon.gov/odot/dmv/pages/online_manual/study-section_3.aspx#:~:text=At%20an%20intersection%20with%20a,(see%20section%20on%20Pedestrians).
So we spend $288,000 out of our economy to another place? This is supposed to help us? If not a safety Issue why are we doing it? This money comes out of locals pockets and goes elsewhere. I can not see this helping, as it is taking a big chunk out of local economy. May bring city back a small percentage but it is a big number of dollars leaving Albany.
I received a $265 ticket for going 42 mph through the North Albany intersection on a day when there was no school at the elementary. I don’t know if there was school that day at the middle school. With no blinking light during school hours, how are people, without kids at both schools, supposed to know when school is in session? It doesn’t seem reasonable to enforce 2 different speed limits when the driver has no way of knowing at any given time what the speed limit is.
Please let us know if you hire someone to fight the ticket.
Thank you so much for covering this Hasso! According to what I found online there are around 3000 households in North Albany OR. How many tickets do they HAVE to send out to cover the costs of 2 cameras a year? At a net revenue of $100 a ticket that is 60 a month or 720 a year approx. 25% of households will get a ticket this year? That is predatory. And then there are the added auto insurance for the tickets. To what gain? Verra Mobility will gain for sure! The rest of us get to live in fear!