Chattanooga police officer Stephen Coleman is keeping two eyes on how fast drivers are traveling down East Brainerd Road. The speed limit is 40, but Coleman is giving drivers 10 miles per hour leeway. Yet when a car exceeds even that limit as it zips under the I-75 overpass, he doesn’t budge.
Coleman doesn’t have to give chase, though, because the ticket for the violation is all but signed, sealed and delivered. He’s viewing traffic from within the confines of one of the department’s “speed vans,” photo enforcement vehicles that gauge the velocity of passing vehicles using cutting edge laser technology. In a process that has become familiar to many Chattanoogans since the department launched the vans in 2008, when the system catches a driver going over the speed limit, the camera snaps a picture of his license plate, and if the vehicle in the photo matches the records at the Department of Motor Vehicles, the department issues the owner a ticket.
It’s among the most infuriating pieces of mail to receive. But if a person is going to get a ticket for speeding, it beats getting pulled over, says Sergeant Gary Martin.
“If I’m the one writing you a ticket, it goes on your record. This doesn’t. And the fine isn’t as high.” When a person receives a speeding ticket in the mail, he or she can either pay the fine or go to court and argue his or her case. Some people go the latter route, but it’s not an easy win since the photo doesn’t lie, and their line of reasoning is usually desperate. One man who’d received three tickets for traveling “one or two miles per hour” above the 10 miles per hour grace zone argued he was barely speeding, Martin says, shaking his head.
Coleman has heard others say they didn’t see “the big white van” in which the photo equipment was housed, which could be true, though not because traffic enforcement is hiding. Coleman is parked in plain view alongside East Brainerd Road, a few feet away from passing cars. Up the road, a large orange sign alerts drivers to the presence of his van. Yet he’s witnessed eight violations in the five hours since 9 a.m., which astounds him given he’s not far from a red light.
“They start out at zero at Hickory Valley, so they have to be really hauling to be doing more than 50 by the time they get to the bridge,” he says. Chattanooga began photo enforcement on July 16, 2007 in response to frequent fatalities at the Hixson Pike “S curves.” The first phase of the program consisted of the installation of speed cameras. Martin says they had a direct impact on driver behavior. “There were a lot of fatalities at the S curves. I worked a wreck in which four kids were killed. We installed the cameras, and let everyone know we were in a 30-day warning phase. During those 30 days, we had a drag racing fatality, but since then, we haven’t had a single fatality at those curves.”
To keep Chattanoogans from being among the nearly 1,000 people who die every year in the U.S. due to red light violations, the department began a red light enforcement program in December 2007. Martin says violations at the intersections with red light cameras have dropped dramatically since the department put the cameras online.
While the locations of the red light cameras are no secret – lists of where drivers can find them are available online – the four speed vans the city uses can show up at any of the 20 high risk locations at any time. Martin says it’s important to keep drivers on their toes so they don’t become lax and then hurt themselves and others.
“We’ve become complacent as drivers. And that’s scary because you have to divide your attention when you’re driving a vehicle. You have to check your speedometer and your mirrors, and use your gas and your brake. There’s a lot going on, but since those things become second nature to you, you become complacent while you’re doing them, and before you know it, you’re speeding.” Although violators likely don’t appreciate the speed vans, the people who live in the residential areas the vans cover do, Martin says.
“We have a spot we do on Fernway, and the postman and nearly every other person in that area has thanked us for being there. Someone almost ran the postman over, and the residents have thanked us for slowing down traffic enough to allow them to get safely out of their driveways.” And safety, not increased revenues, is why the speed vans are on the road, Martin says. “If we can cut down on people dying on our roads, then we’ve done our job.”