It’s a familiar sight in Baltimore — a motorist approaches a traffic signal turning yellow or red and tries to scoot through. But running red lights, of course, remains illegal.
Baltimore’s Department of Transportation is trying to crack down on the impatient drivers with new red-light cameras at certain intersections.
Eight new cameras went online this week, snapping photos of license plates and sending $75 tickets to their owners. Here’s where they are located:
- Harford Road at Erdman Avenue
- North Avenue at Pennsylvania Avenue
- Orleans/Gay Street at Ensor Street
- Frankford Avenue at Belair Road
- Liberty Heights Avenue at Reisterstown Road
- Edmondson Avenue at Hilton Street
- Pratt Street at the Pier V Garage
- Edmondson Avenue at Uplands Parkway/Winans Way
The cameras were turned on Monday and operate 24 hours a day. Photos and videos are taken of the rear of the vehicle along with the visible red traffic signal, both before and once it enters an intersection, city officials said in a news release. Enforcement at all locations “may be on a temporary, rotating, or permanent basis,” officials said.
“Baltimore’s automated enforcement program is designed to promote safe driving in city communities by helping to decrease the incidence of vehicles running red lights,” the news release stated.
Baltimore’s Department of Transportation chooses locations for red-light cameras largely for safety reasons, choosing intersections with high traffic volumes and accidents, according to agency’s website.
The cameras join an automated citywide network of roughly 80 red-light cameras, more than 100 speed cameras and six height-monitoring cameras, which cite large trucks for using restricted roadways.
Meanwhile, WJZ reports that three of five planned license plate readers have been installed at several South Baltimore intersections in an effort to crack down on crimes such as carjackings. They are being funded by a grant from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. The readers are located at Hanover and Hamburg streets, Light and Cross streets, and Key Highway and Lawrence Street.
Want to see where the new red-light cameras are in your neighborhood? Check out the Baltimore DOT map below, which appears not to have been updated with the new red-light cameras. Black dots indicate a speed camera and red dots indicate a red-light camera.
WJZ, a media partner of The Baltimore Banner, contributed to this report.
