New speed cameras to be installed across busy Philly streets
PHILADELPHIA - After more than a hundred serious crashes along Route 13 in recent years, city officials are doing more to combat speeding.
During a ceremonial bill signing, city officials provided more details on the initiative.
What we know:
Philadelphia will once again use speed cameras to slow traffic along a busy route in the city after their apparent success on Roosevelt Boulevard.
Along the 4900 block of Baltimore Avenue in West Philly, trolleys and traffic pass on busy, intersecting streets leading, say city officials, to traffic accidents, even injuries.
Would speed cameras help?
City leaders believe automated speed cameras are the answer in these neighborhoods.
Mayor Parker said 42 of them will be strung along Route 13, in multiple communities, likely including 34th Street near the Philadelphia Zoo and sections of Frankford Ave.
Parker said in recent years there were 123 fatal or serious crashes on the route. "That means it is ranked the second most dangerous state road in Philadelphia," said Mayor Parker.
The mayor held a ceremonial bill signing Monday allowing for the new cameras. They’ll join the cameras running on the notoriously dangerous Roosevelt Blvd. which Parker claims are now saving one life per month.
What they're saying:
Pete Marciano drives in from Bucks County. "The speed that goes on nobody’s paying attention to the speed limits anymore, so I think you have a little bit more than bad driving going on. I’m somewhere in the middle with it," he said.
The mayor argued the cameras are a step toward safety. Not all agree.
"I think any monitoring system by government of our people is not the best way go about I and if we want to make thinks clearer just add signage," said Em Orendorff.
The Source: The information in this story is from Philadelphia officials and residents.