Data shows reduction in traffic fatalities on Boulevard

Mayor Jim Kenney recently joined city and state officials to highlight the success of the Roosevelt Boulevard Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) pilot program and to advocate for legislation to continue the speed cameras program set to expire in 2023.

Roosevelt Boulevard was chosen to be a pilot of the ASE program because it has one of the highest rates of crashes in Philadelphia. According to PennDOT, 55 percent of crashes on the Boulevard were either speeding related or a result of aggressive driving. Since the introduction of ASE in June 2020, data shows an approximate 50 percent reduction in traffic fatalities in the first seven months of implementation. Additionally, monthly speeding violations fell 93 percent from when the pilot program began in June 2020 to January 2022.

“The success of Automated Speed Enforcement here on Roosevelt Boulevard cannot be overstated. Even as traffic crashes rose in late 2020 in Philadelphia and across the country, the Boulevard saw 200 fewer crashes in the first seven months,” said Kenney. “New legislation, at the state and local level, is needed to keep these cameras operating, bring the success of Automated Speed Enforcement to other corridors throughout our city and save lives.”

The pilot program was administered by the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) in an effort to reduce the number of crashes resulting in serious injury or fatalities as detailed in the PPA’s Roosevelt Boulevard Speed Camera Annual Report 2022. PPA currently manages the city’s 138 red light cameras and the speed sensors on Roosevelt Boulevard.

“We wholeheartedly support making the speed camera enforcement program a permanent public safety tool that will continue to save multiple lives by reducing speeding on what was once one of the most dangerous highways in the country,” said Philadelphia’s Parking Authority Chairperson, Beth Grossman.

Action by legislators in Harrisburg is needed to make the program permanent and expand the locations where cameras can be installed.