An attempt to repeal Chicago’s 6 mph-over speeding tickets stalls
A measure that would have repealed that portion of the law was delayed in a City Council meeting that devolved into a dramatic battle between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her staunchest council critics.
By Mariah Woelfel
An attempt to repeal Chicago’s 6 mph-over speeding tickets stalls
A measure that would have repealed that portion of the law was delayed in a City Council meeting that devolved into a dramatic battle between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her staunchest council critics.
By Mariah WoelfelChicagoans who speed 6 to 9 miles per hour above the limit will still be on the hook for an automated $35 ticket if they’re caught on one of the city’s speed cameras, at least for now.
A measure that would have repealed that portion of the law was stalled at a Wednesday City Council meeting that devolved into a dramatic battle between Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her staunchest council critics. Allies of Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who is fiercely opposed to the repeal, used a parliamentary maneuver to delay a vote on it, a signal it had the support to pass.
As retaliation, Alds. Anthony Beale and Raymond Lopez used the same maneuver to delay a slew of routine measures supported by their colleagues, including efforts to renovate the 43rd Street Green Line station, repairs to the Blue Line’s Forest Park route and more. The move sends a long list of legislation that was slated for passage into limbo.
“Once again Madam President, you are changing the rules as you see fit,” Beale, 9th Ward, said to Lightfoot before banding with Lopez to retaliate. “You cannot make the rules up as you go along.”
Lightfoot was the one to introduce the $35 ticket program as part of her 2021 budget and said it has made streets safer since. She issued a rare statement on Tuesday after a City Council committee advanced the measure to the full council.
“It is simply unconscionable that, after losing 173 Chicagoans to speed-related traffic fatalities in 2021, some Aldermen are acting with so little regard for public safety,” Lightfoot said in a statement Tuesday, after the repeal advanced out of committee, where she called out each individual committee member who voted in favor of repealing the program.
The effort to roll back the law comes as traffic deaths have dominated news headlines in recent weeks. At least four people have been killed by cars in June alone, three of whom were children.
Wednesday’s maneuver pushes the proposal until the council’s next full meeting, at least.
That means Chicagoans will continue to be ticketed in the same way they have been for the past year since the program went into effect. Drivers who speed between 6 and 9 miles per hour over the limit are at risk of getting a $35 ticket. Drivers who speed 10-plus miles per hour above the limit are subject to a $100 ticket if caught on camera. Cameras are only allowed near parks and schools. The city has installed 162 of them.
The repeal’s chief sponsor, Ald. Anthony Beale, introduced the measure in March 2021. His proposal would make it so drivers aren’t at risk of a ticket until they go 10 mph above the limit. At that point, they’d get a $35 ticket if caught. Once they go 11 mph above the limit, that ticket price jumps to $100.
Lightfoot’s budget office said repealing the program would leave a $40-45 million hole in the city’s budget. Under state law, money made from speed cameras can only be allocated for public safety initiatives to secure “safe passage” around schools, infrastructure, pedestrian and traffic safety initiatives, and after school programs, budget officials said.
Lightfoot and her allies have successfully blocked Beale’s proposal from advancing out of committee until earlier this week. Speaking to members at that committee meeting on Tuesday, Beale called the program a cash grab that falls on the backs of Chicago’s low-income residents.
“The majority of that money is off the backs of people who can least afford it in the Black and brown communities,” said Beale, echoing the sentiments of the 15 others who voted in favor of advancing the repeal out of committee.
Chicago Department of Transportation Commissioner Gia Biagi, who has testified on behalf of the mayor to committee aldermen, confirmed that the “Black and brown Chicagoans are getting most of the tickets” but added that Black and brown Chicagoans are killed disproportionately in traffic crashes.
Biagi testified that while traffic fatalities have been on the rise nationally and locally, injury crashes near speed cameras have decreased since the city started ticketing people for speeding between 6 and 9 mph. From January to April in 2019, there were around 175 injury crashes near existing speed cameras, compared to around 155 in the same timeframe in 2022 — a 13% decline, Biagi said.
“Speed kills,” Biagi said. “And that’s what we’re seeing here in our city and other cities across the country.”
The chart outlining the decrease in crash injuries near speed cameras in 2022 did not satisfy members of the council who said they’ve been bombarded with complaints from residents who’ve been ticketed.
“We’re mixing apples and oranges,” said Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th Ward, who’s running against Lightfoot for mayor. He said the city hasn’t provided enough detailed analysis and data to prove the ticketing system has improved street safety.
Lopez is one of Lightfoot’s harshest and most frequent critics on the council. But numerous members who are allies of the mayor and handpicked committee chairs also helped to deliver the blow by voting to advance the proposal out of committee Tuesday.
“What happened today is simply not responsible governance,” Lightfoot wrote in her statement Tuesday. “I will not let City Council jeopardize public safety.”
Mariah Woelfel covers Chicago city government. You can follow her on Twitter at @MariahWoelfel.