One of the speed cameras on North Albany Road at Thornton Lake Drive (Photo 6/22/2025)
Complaints about the speed camera on North Albany Road keep coming up at Albany City Council meetings, and city officials should do something in response before school resumes in the fall.
The main complaint is that sometimes drivers are misled into thinking that it’s not a school day and then are trapped for violating the school zone speed.
On July 9, the council heard from a man who said he had driven on North Albany Road thousands of times in his 50-some years of living in North Albany, without ever getting a speeding ticket.
That string came to an end in April, on Good Friday, he said, when he slowed to 20 mph in the school zone, then speeded up again when he saw a “no school” sign at North Albany Elementary. He did not realize that this didn’t apply to North Albany Middle School, which was in session.
He got a ticket for going 32 mph. He understood that hundreds of others were hit with tickets the same way. You can watch and listen to him on the council’s YouTube video. He starts talking at the 34:30 minute mark.
Like others before him, he asked the city to install flashing lights to show when the school zone is in effect. That, he suggested, would do more for traffic safety than the speed cameras.
Three council members, Carolyn McLeod, Steph Newton and Mike Thomson, have also spoken in favor of flashing lights.
The city staff told the council last month it might cost $60,000 to install flashing lights that operate from 7-5 on school days, when the 20 mph school zone speed limit is in effect.
What, if anything, happens next?
“We have a meeting next week to discuss it, the costs, etc.,” Police Chief Marcia Harnden told me in an email.
Cost is one consideration, of course, but there’s another one too.
When the city enforces, with stiff fines, a lower speed limit, it has an obligation to tell drivers just when that limit is in effect. It is not enough to post signs for 20 mph on “school days” without giving a clear indication on what’s a school day and what’s not. (hh)
Where is the ACLU of Oregon when they are needed?
Privacy and due process protections are clearly being violated in Albany.
It would be helpful if the Mayor & Democrats on the council heard the ACLU’s reasoned voice on this matter.
Not disagreeing with you on the subject of fairness Gordon, but if there’s no criminal penalties for an offense the due process rules are different. Such as not guaranteed an attorney. I remember the DA’s office in Multnomah County doing this in a case where I was testifying. They dropped the charge down to a violation because it meant the court didn’t have to provide an attorney.
Absolutely need a flashing light and to make it clear that you can travel 25 miles an hour when school is not in session like summertime. I don’t know, maybe the speed limit through that area when school is not in session is 35 mph. However, it’s confusing right now. Everybody seems to be erring on the side of caution.
It’s amazing that Jefferson can afford flashing lights for both the grade school and high school but Albany can’t or won’t. I’ll bet they never paid $60,000 either. Only Albany can spend money like a drunken sailor.
That’s exactly why these cameras were installed here and will be installed soon in West Albany. The city wants the easy higher fines. It’s pretty clear when Queen/Elm is a 25mph but they need these cameras? If they are looking for 60k for lighting, maybe sell the 9th Ave property they can’t agree agree on.
If they install the flashing lights it will get rid of the 7-5 I would believe. Most areas with the flashing light system states speed limit 20 mph while lights are flashing. It’s ridiculous we don’t have them at every school as it is. It’s much safer and sure more noticeable. I bet they’ll say they can’t rig the cameras to coincide with the lights right? It’s pointing to a scam more than a safety consideration if you ask me.
As I’ve stated in comments before…
This is a similar situation as in Corvallis at Crescent Valley High school where, the speed limit is 45mph (40 in Albany). Due to this special situation, Corvallis installed flashing lights as it should be and rightly so…
Driving 20 to 25 mph over the speed limit in a school zone is considered reckless driving in many jurisdictions and can result in significant penalties, hefty fines and even license suspension. In Oregon, exceeding the speed limit by more than 20 mph in a school zone can lead to a Class B traffic violation, with potential fines and a license suspension. When someone gets a ticket for going 20 to 25 miles over the speed limit in a school zone, it can also cause a substantial increase or even cancellation of ones insurance.
Please Albany city council do the right thing for the people of Albany and install the lights!
Use the money from the fines generated from the cameras until the flashing lights are paid off.
Hasso states, with fervid moral certainty, “It is not enough to post signs for 20 mph on “school days” without giving a clear indication on what’s a school day and what’s not.”
This begs the question: are North Albany drivers so dense they can]t read a yellow school zone sign and slow down on the chance that there might be children present? Judging by the level of whining in the comments, it seems many Albany drivers are equivalent to Junior High children. Swimming in their own adolescence, they must deserve even MORE warning. A Yellow School Zone sign is not enough to make these callow, shallow motor vehicle operators stop and think about someone other than themselves.
The question is – what will the unfledged demand as sufficient warning after the flashing lights go in?
It seems you are too dense to see the problem.
Whatever to do about the sections of the streets where kids are walking to school outside the designated school zone.
Change the signs to what other schools use that state lower speed when children are present.
Folks are overthinking it… A much more simple solution could be to simply have a 20mph limit 24/7 when in any “school zone.” Please articulate a valid reason why anyone NEEDS to go more than 20mph in a school zoon. Regardless of whether or not it might be midnight on a Sat. or Sun. is totally irrelevant IMO. Yeah, yeah, before you whine, and say “…it was an emergency…” If you can prove that, no ticket or fine…
Typical foolish bureaucrat answer. Nobody drives 20 miles an hour unless they are in a school zone with kids present.
Typical response… You didn’t answer my basic question. Wanting to and needing to are entirely different.
Typical is 25 mph in a residential neighborhood. The N. Albany roads are no longer rural roads, with the little bit of infill left, it’s developed as much as it’s going to develop without adding more farmland outside the UGB. I see all kinds of kids, bikes, joggers using these roadways/sidewalks with people driving by them at highway speed. I see people slamming on the brakes when the bus stops to drop off kids… so far we have been lucky. Curious to know the top speed the cameras picked up so far, we had that one months back in the 120MPH range picked up by the portable unit.
Same reason we don’t drive 5MPH in a school zone. The lower the speed limits, the more cars on the road because it takes longer to get there. Apparently the traffic across the bridge isn’t in your neighborhood.
ALL School zones should have flashing amber lights when there’s a need to slow traffic. The lighting system increases compliance to the 20 mph speed limit and also promotes better traffic flow when the reduce speed is not needed. Also let’s get one on South Waverly at South Albany high school.
Good gravy people…where is the common sense? Seriously, you can’t think without having your hand held. Do you really need a label that says NOT to use the blow dryer while taking a shower or NOT put a ladder on a chair?
Admittedly it’s been a good 45 years since I left school, but it typically started after Labor Day and went through the second week of June. Sometimes it starts the last week of August. So unless it is a Federal Holiday or I can see the parking lot of the school, I just assume from late August to mid-June that school is in session and slow the heck down. It’s just a few blocks, doesn’t slow me down all that much and if you can’t take the time to drive slower for those few blocks, I suggest better time management skills.
I don’t think it’s common sense to require people to go 20 mph all day long, five days a week for nine months of the year, when a flashing amber light used at the proper times would get better compliance and would only need to slow people for short periods of time when students were coming or going.
Agreed!
We need better communication from the city about WHEN each limit is enforceable. How is your average person supposed to know which days are school days when they drive by?
I have said it before, it’s sheer greed that installed the speeding cameras. It would’ve been much more cost-effective to just put in a flashing school in session sign. Where I lived previously every school had them. Solar powered, and on timers that were updated on school was out for the summer. Just too simple a solution for Albany. The point should be safety for the students.
If anyone believes these cameras were installed for safety reasons they are naive. They were installed simply to generate revenue for the city.
Agreed!