Baltimore’s mayor-controlled spending board approved a nearly $17 million extension Wednesday for traffic cameras, including the pair installed last year along Interstate 83 — a decision that comes as the cameras seem to have dissuaded reckless driving on an infamous stretch of the freeway.

The extension, which covers 160 speed cameras across the city, passed the Board of Estimates 4-1, with Council President Nick Mosby, one of two members of the five-member board who isn’t part of Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration, voting against each of the spending items. One of two representatives on the five-member board who isn’t a part of Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration, Mosby first tried to punt the pricey camera contract to the next meeting in January, but couldn’t get support for the deferral from the rest of the board.

While Mosby has been critical of the I-83 camera contracts from the start, the Department of Transportation official overseeing the program argued that the cameras have had an immediate impact for safety on the road, a point backed by Comptroller Bill Henry and the mayor.

“Money is nice,” said Henry, “but keeping people from running into each other on 83 is really the point.”

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The I-83 cameras, located where the freeway passes the Hampden neighborhood just north of Druid Hill Park, were originally pitched in part as a way to raise revenues for improvements to the Jones Falls Expressway. But because the cameras seem to be dissuading reckless driving, the city has issued far fewer tickets than predicted.

As of Oct. 31, the city had issued just under 380,000 citations since the cameras went live, well below projections.

Baltimore received state permission to install the two cameras on I-83 during the General Assembly’s 2021 session. Since their installation, the city has pocketed about $1.5 million in citations from the I-83 cameras, Henry said, while paying the remainder of $8 million in contract costs to the Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions, which owns and operates the cameras.

That means the cameras haven’t produced nearly the revenues officials had predicted, leaving next to nothing available for I-83 improvements. The Department of Transportation budgeted more than $38 million for revenues from the traffic cameras in the 2023 fiscal year, but cut that estimate to just $8 million for the current year, according to city budget documents.

But the citation shortfall has also correlated with a steep drop in crashes on I-83. To date in 2023, there have been 215 crashes on I-83 in Baltimore, according to Department of Transportation data shared by the comptroller’s office, down from 293 last year and 399 in 2021.

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An analysis by The Baltimore Banner in October found that crashes dropped by half in the three months after the cameras were installed compared to the three months prior, with an especially stark drop in accidents on the stretch of road within a mile of the two cameras.

Mosby, though, has maintained that the city shouldn’t have to fork over as much of the money earned from citations to the cameras’ out-of-state operator, and argued Wednesday that the city could operate the cameras at a much lower cost than the $8 million it’s paid so far.

In recent weeks city finance officials have warned that Baltimore is facing a structural deficit heading into the next fiscal year of more than $100 million, a point Mosby argued officials need to keep in mind as they consider expensive contracts like those for the traffic cameras. Managing the city’s camera system could be handled within the transportation department and provide opportunities for city jobs, Mosby said — an approach Henry agreed the city should consider piloting.

At a news conference after Wednesday’s meeting, Scott expressed confidence that revenues from the camera program should improve, but also argued that the tickets aren’t the point.

“We want to make people feel safe,” the mayor said. “This isn’t just about money.”

Adam Willis

adam.willis@thebaltimorebanner.com

Adam Willis

Adam Willis covers city government for The Banner, including the impacts of the large COVID-19 stimulus package that Baltimore received from the federal government.

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