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A new pilot program will test the effectiveness of traffic cameras in Michigan school zones.
The Michigan Department of Transportation was tasked with completing the study through an appropriation in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
The pilot would begin by collecting baseline data in school zones to understand the current conditions.
Once the initial data collection is complete, the traffic cameras would be installed with signs alerting drivers that their speeds are being monitored through the school zone.
The department hasn’t announced which school zones will be part of the pilot.
Garrett Dawe is a traffic safety engineer for MDOT. He says the hope is that the cameras, which can transmit videos of speeding vehicles and pictures of their license plates to local law enforcement, will have an impact on driver behavior.
“A very large driver behind the way people drive is the threat of enforcement,” Dawe said. “Of course, enforcement can’t be everywhere, so a system like this that automates it, to me, has a lot of potential for traffic safety improvements.”
While citations will not be issued during the pilot, MDOT hopes to learn more about the demand it would place on police departments if such a system were to be used in the future.
“Are they just likely to be completely inundated with information and citations to issue, or is it kind of an initial time period where that may be the case and then it settles out beyond that, which is really what you would hope for,” Dawe said.
At least a dozen other states currently use the automated enforcement systems, though two of them only use them in school zones.
