Brookside traffic cameras an “enormous success” says Lake Forest Park mayor despite “messy” bill and mistakes

Saturday, August 10, 2024


After Lake Forest Park turned on the traffic cameras on 178th near Brookside elementary all day in June, average speeds are down from over 30 miles an hour to less than 25 miles per hour. 
But the “no racing zone” law the city used to keep the cameras on was repealed in June. To comply with the new law, the city will now designate them “school walk zone” cameras instead. 
The city blamed “inaccurate” information and a “messy” bill for the mistake. Traffic fines generate $3.84 million per biennium in the city that is facing a budget deficit after repeated failed property tax ballot measures. 
The city’s Judge warned the council about the high workload caused by the tickets.


In June, the city of Lake Forest Park turned on the 178th traffic cameras by Brookside elementary 24 hours a day even when school is not in session.

At an August 5 city council meeting, Lake Forest Park Mayor Tom French said, “the average speed in the 178th zone prior to the installation of the 24/7 traffic cameras was over 30 miles an hour.” After 60 days, “it is down now to 24.3 miles an hour. It's below 25 miles an hour, so by any metric it has been an enormous success,” he said.

Currently, the city is only issuing warnings. But with the light rail station at 185th street opening soon, the city is worried 178th will see increased cut-through traffic and speeding.

“The reality is, we have people that are continually speeding through our community and putting lives at risk. And this is a an absolutely proven method to slow people down,” said Mayor French.

In December of 2023, Lake Forest Park added 178th to its list of designated no-racing zones and earlier this year, the city posted “no racing zone” signs along 178th, causing confusion for some residents.

A previous state law allowed cities to deploy traffic cameras in no-racing zones, and in April, the city council voted to leave the traffic cameras on all-day throughout the year whereas before they could only be active during school hours when Brookside elementary was in session.

A map from the city shows the locations of automated speed cameras
near Brookside Elementary on 178th street

Data on the street racing problem in Lake Forest Park is sparse. A public records request filed with WSDOT returned a total of ten crashes attributed to street racing in Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, and Kenmore since 2010 and a search on the Washington State Patrol’s website found only six street racing crashes in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park in the past ten years. In comparison, there were 1,785 crashes in Lake Forest Park alone over the last ten years according to the Washington State Patrol’s website.

The state law that previously allowed cities to use automated traffic cameras in “restricted racing zones” was repealed in June at the same time Lake Forest Park switched the traffic cameras to no-racing zone cameras. In public comments at an August 5 city council meeting, city attorney Kim Pratt, blamed “inaccurate” information received from Westlaw for the mistake.

“I have to admit I'm a little annoyed with the fact that they gave you poor information about this,” said council member Tracy Furutani.

“The legislature handed us… a very messy, messy bill,” said Mayor Tom French about the new state law that took effect in June. “It is sausage making. There's just no question about it,” he said.

The new law allows cities to deploy automated traffic enforcement cameras in school walk zones within a one-mile radius of a school. To comply with the law, Lake Forest Park will designate 178th near Brookside elementary a “school walk zone” instead of a “no racing zone.” The “no racing zone” signs will be replaced.

“Ultimately the problem we're looking to address is pedestrian safety. Especially for children but really for the community as a whole,” said council member Larry Goldman at the August 8th meeting. 
“I still think it's a bit of a weird shaped tool that the legislature has given us but ultimately, the school walk zone is the best tool for the job to address pedestrian safety,” he said.

“The spirit of in which we have been approaching this is, of course, is pedestrian multimodal safety. Full stop,” said Mayor Tom French. “100% of the net revenues that come from these traffic camera installations go right back into pedestrian and multimodal safety by state statute.”

The new state law requires cities who install new traffic cameras to spend revenue on traffic safety improvements and at least part of the money must be spent in low income neighborhoods. But that law doesn’t apply to cities like Lake Forest Park who had already deployed traffic cameras prior to the law’s passage. Lake Forest Park is allowed to direct revenue from the traffic cameras into their general fund.

“We need to make sure that we have additional sidewalks. We all know we need additional crosswalks,” said Mayor French. But a levy to pay for parks and sidewalks on the 2021 ballot was rejected by over 65% of Lake Forest Park voters and a property tax levy was rejected by 77.97% of Lake Forest Park voters in 2010. Now, the city is facing a “structural financial deficit” and is considering placing a levy on the 2025 ballot.

 A graph from the 2023 State of the Court presentation shows the number of traffic camera infractions issued in recent years in Lake Forest Park

According to the city’s budget, traffic fines will generate $3.84 million this biennium for the general fund and the city will spend $11 million (30% of the budget) on the city’s largest, single expense: the police department. Recently the city increased fines to $145 - the maximum allowed under the law.

Only 8.5% of the traffic camera fines were issued to residents of Lake Forest Park - the majority of ticket recipients were from out of town. According to the police department, although less than 4% of Lake Forest Park residents are Black, 12% of people who received a traffic ticket in the city were Black. And an equity analysis said the traffic cameras on 178th have the potential to disproportionately impact Hispanic and lower-income commuters.

A study commissioned by the city estimated between 350 to 470 vehicles per day will receive citations now that the cameras are always on - an increase from 44 per day last year when they were only on during school hours.

Drivers who receive a traffic camera infraction can attempt to dispute the ticket in the Lake Forest Park municipal court.

At the August 8th meeting, Municipal Court Judge Jennifer Grant presented the council with the annual State of the Court. She cautioned the city about the workload caused by more than 23,000 traffic camera tickets last year. “Each and every one of those tickets does amount to a significant amount of work,” said Judge Grant.

Council member Tracy Furutani told her, “we may be potentially adding another 10,000 infractions per year.”

When asked by council member Larry Goldman to name a particular challenge the court faces, Judge Grant said, “Staffing. I think is critical just to keep up with what we need to do to make things continue to run smoothly.”


14 comments:

Anonymous,  August 10, 2024 at 8:27 AM  

This is great reporting - thanks for publishing.

This Mayor and Council don't really care if their policy is supported by data. They just want these cameras (and the revenue) and will do anything to get more.

They passed a "No Racing Zone" even though there was zero evidence of racing. When that didn't work, they passed a "School Walk Zone" - because, you need cameras running 24/7 to protect kids walking to school at midnight on a Wednesday. Right...

Anonymous,  August 10, 2024 at 9:01 AM  

Shoreline City Council - please take a hint and replicate this for the 10th AVE NE Speedway from NE 155th to NE 185th. Ridgecrest Elementary could be the school walk zone used to SLOW DOWN people who are so important that speed limits and traffic laws need not apply to them. The road diet on 15th NE drove more volume to 10th (and NE 8th) and it's only going to get worse when light rail opens at 185th. (side note: after a serious accident > a year ago a couple of the Shoreline deputies at the scene didn't know the legal speed for the street - a neighbor had to explain it's 25 mph, not 30 - so if law enforcement doesn't know, how would drivers?)

Anonymous,  August 10, 2024 at 10:52 AM  

Do we think making our streets safe is worth the work and cost of doing it, or do we want to make them a game of “getting away with dangerous fun and to the devil with the neighborhood”?

Anonymous,  August 10, 2024 at 10:05 PM  

Big brother is back in town

Anonymous,  August 11, 2024 at 3:00 AM  

Anonymous @ 9:01 AM: According to 15th Ave NE Traffic Study from the May 14, 2007 city council meeting, the daily traffic volume on 10th increased by 38 vehicles per day after the road diet. That's a 2.1% change, a minuscule amount of diverted traffic. On the other hand, there was a 30.9% reduction in injuries on 15th Ave NE, a huge improvement. Road diets improve safety, and this has been proven time and time again. Don't try to paint them as a bad thing.

Anonymous,  August 11, 2024 at 7:30 AM  

I agree, this is great reporting on a Mayor and council that are out of control. Mayor French neglects to say that the City’s parks levy failed, despite broad community support, because city government decided to float the levy proposal as a PERPETUAL TAX that would never need re-authorization and would automatically increase year over year. The community wisely rejected this and city government was able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. So now LFP needs a 24-hour school walk-zone 24/7/365? How many elementary school lives will be saved by this law at midnight on school holidays? LFP voters should throw this crop of loonies out at the next opportunity and try to restore some semblance of honesty into city government. Some leaders who can say ‘we think the city needs more revenue and this is how we propose to raise it’. How refreshing that would be!

Doug Mitchell,  August 11, 2024 at 9:26 AM  

This article says that the City is only issuing warnings as a result of speed violations detected by the cameras. However the City's web site claims that tickets were being issued as of July 3. Is there other info available indicating that the warning period is still in effect?
https://www.cityoflfp.gov/433/Photo-Enforcement-Program

Anonymous,  August 11, 2024 at 10:04 AM  

Just another revenue stream for irresponsible city councils.

Anonymous,  August 12, 2024 at 3:52 PM  

Shame on City Attorney Kim Pratt for blaming Westlaw for her mistake.
1. Westlaw research is only as good as the search query that she or her staff entered into the search box.
2. Also, the City Attorney could have checked the official site of any information listed in Westlaw's results (RCW, WAC, legislative history, etc.) rather than totally rely on computer-assisted legal research.
3. Finally, I question whether the City Attorney read the Westlaw information correctly or "shepardized" it.

Anonymous,  August 12, 2024 at 8:55 PM  

The City Attorney is not to blame alone. Maybe if the Mayor and Council weren't in such a hurry to pass this (one-day notice for a special hearing) they could have done some due diligence. The court impact is just one example of their failure to consider the issues.

Anonymous,  August 13, 2024 at 7:21 PM  

The City Attorney should have known better. Blaming Westlaw is a joke. The mayor and council probably just responded to a business development opportunity presented by their traffic camera vendor and said oh if they think its legal lets try it and the City Attorney is like I read the citations from a special interest memo - due diligence done. I read the legislative report on the bills and it was obvious. The continued "approval" of this program violates the WA Admin Procedures Act as they are trying to bootstrap their erroneous basis efforts and just susbstitute a newly titled report and problem solved - sorry due process.

Regardless of all that, the school walk area statute's purpose is focused on getting students to and from school. Its basically the same crap as a no racing zone, just making it a little more independent from the city (its defined for the most part based on the School Superintendent.) Hard to say if the state legistlature overstepped or LFP is just trying to push through without caring, but any 24hr photo enforcement program is still likely unconstitutional. I find it ironic that despite our City's progressive values and spirit, so many people (and the government) support the constitutional overreach.

Anonymous,  August 13, 2024 at 9:37 PM  

The mayor when running for office was asked how he would raise revenue. His answer was simple, we will use speed cameras to raise revenue. I wonder how this might effect the businesses at the shopping center. Why risk driving through LFP to go shopping, there are many options that do not require driving through speed traps. What LFP would like is a gated community with no outsiders.

Anonymous,  August 14, 2024 at 3:04 AM  

There's no "risk" driving through LFP if you follow the rules. If you find yourself approaching the speed limit, release the gas pedal. If you are going downhill, you may need to press your brake. It's not hard.

Anonymous,  August 16, 2024 at 2:33 PM  

I look at it this way.... if these cameras are 24/7 and hundreds more drivers are ticketed will that really save a human walking down the street that is hit by a distracted driver checking their text message????? If the city installed real sidewalks with a curb and maybe even a short fence might that save a walking human from a terrible accident? My thought is the city needs to put some money into pedestrian safety. 24/7 cameras in a short corridor is not going to do that!!!
We have an incompetent , dishonest group of people on our city council......

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