A driver passes the westbound traffic camera on Santiam Road at Geary Street on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026.
Albany’s traffic cameras at four intersections are no longer new. You’d think drivers would have learned by now. But apparently not.
The number of citations issued for speed violations during December, an even 800, was almost the same as the month before. So was the total number of December tickets, 875, which included 75 red-light violations. (See the table below.)
As before, violations caught by cameras on North Albany and Santiam roads accounted for the majority of speeding tickets issued last month.
The consistent number of speed violations caught by the cameras on those two roads seems to confirm something I have read: The average speed of traffic is a result mainly of road design, not of posted limits. So if you want lower speeds, build roads that induce or require drivers to slow down.
In the table below I was puzzled by the phrase, in the line for speed violations, “(1-10) over 65 mph.” Police Chief Marcia Harnden, who sent me the table, explained that the cameras don’t enforce speeds between 1 and 10 miles over the limit, so the enforcement is from 11 to 65 mph.
“We don’t normally get speeds over 65 but they do happen,” she added.
The average speed resulting in tickets on North Albany Road in December was 32.7 mph in one direction and 33.7 mph in the other.
On Santiam Road at Geary, the average ticketed speed in December was 37.2 and 37.4 mph, respectively. The speed limit there is 25 mph.
In related news, the city has awarded a contract to install flashing lights on North Albany road to indicate when the 20 mph school zone is in effect and being enforced. City Engineer Staci Belcastro said Tuesday that she’s waiting to get signed contract documents back from NorthStar Electrical Contractors. NorthStar, of Sherwood, bid to install the lights for $42,900.
Also, in November the city’s Transportation Advisory Commission voted 6-0 to send the city council a letter asking that ticket revenue from the cameras “be dedicated to funding street maintenance, local public transit, and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.”
If the council received a recommendation to that effect, it hasn’t given any public sign of doing what the advisory commission advised. (hh)
Here’s a summary the police department prepared of Albany traffic camera tickets for December 2025.
Wait a minute I thought before these were even installed that the police chief said that these were going to be going for another policeman or woman and they had already hired one. Is that not what was reported before I may be wrong?
In parts of residential north Eugene many streets are not straight but look like a snake slithering along its way, certainly slows down traffic. As pointed out traffic is comfortable at 30+ on a straight residential street, 20mph requires conscious thought and most drivers are preoccupied with modern life to adjust
“20mph requires conscious thought and most drivers are preoccupied with modern life to adjust” – Driving requires conscious though so what exactly is your point? That the speed limit should be raised because someone behind the 10k vehicle is just too busy and so it is okay if they hit and kill a kid?
I can see getting caught up with the flow of traffic on a day on the Interstate, but if you can’t drive in town…ESPECIALLY in neighborhoods and zone…and be ‘conscious’ about it, then you have NO FREAKING BUSINESS driving!!! End of story. No excuse.
So, now we are supposed to blame the roads for the failure of drivers to obey speed limit signs that are everywhere? Come on, Hasso. You’re starting to sound “woke”.
You don’t read very well do you? Or perhaps you comprehension issues? My grandson is six, I’m sure he would have no problem understanding: “…something I have read”
Thanks for the update, Hasso. Would be nice if 100 percent of that revenue went to street maintenance.
That’s what I recall too. Also I think there was an additional person to be hired for the municipal court staff to handle the added work.
Like the title of your story is. “PRODUCE”. instead of extra income.
If the City wanted to slow vehicles in the name of SAFETY, a few speed bumps would be a lot cheaper and just as effective for the areas that have a 24/7 fixed speed limit.
I don’t know what the heck is wrong with people these days. How hard is it to do the speed limit? All I hear is excuse after excuse after excuse of why it is the City’s fault that drivers can’t control their vehicle, NOT the driver’s and that is a bunch of crap!
If you can’t control the speed of your vehicle without the government sitting in the passenger seat then you shouldn’t be driving.
I live in Millersburg, living on one of the main streets connecting Woods to Old Salem. Several years back, during a council meeting I brought up to the Millersburg council speeders on our street, which was before we connected with Woods. The builder happened to be at the meeting and said the slight curves in our street and lined with trees would keep the traffic slowed down. Flash forward several years and I call “bunk” on slight curves of the street. Traffic is now open from Woods through to Old Salem and people drive even faster now than back when I complained about speeds. We have a small neighborhood park on our street and two bus stops for K-8th grade. Yesterday at the corner I seen 5 cars drive by while kids where at the corner waiting to cross to go home after school. I have cars go around me while crossing the street to get my mail and come within a foot of me while trying to retrieve my garbage cans on pick up day. People don’t care when they have a 2000 pound weapon in their control and don’t think how fast a small little tumble of slip of the foot could cause them to injure or heaven forbid kill someone. Maybe Millersburg needs to invest in cameras for their four main streets connecting from Woods to Old Salem. I know I wouldn’t object at all and I don’t object to the cameras in Albany. Speed laws are the same to me as any other law and people are supposed to follow the laws no matter what they are.