The Gainesville City Commission voted Thursday to move forward with two speed cameras in school zones and two red-light cameras at busy intersections, hoping to improve safety and to help keep its Vision Zero goals.
The cameras won’t start right away. The city attorney’s office will need to draft two ordinances that outline the camera program operation. Those ordinances will be notified to the public and then return to the City Commission at two separate meetings for a first and second vote.
If the ordinances pass both votes, the speed cameras and red-light cameras will get installed and begin operations. The program is planned to run through RedSpeedUSA, third-party vendor that already has contracts with 18 Florida cities.
City staff presented the items at the city’s General Policy Committee after discussions around the possibility last year.
Police Chief Nelson Moya said the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) was behind the school speed cameras when the idea was first presented. He said the department’s support has increased since then.
“Traffic safety, particularly at our schools, remains a high priority of ours, and any technology that can aid us in reducing injuries or fatalities, we’re all in,” Moya said.
However, Moya also recommended that the city start conservatively and not try to place a camera in every school zone. While the cameras are automated, the process requires GPD staff members to review and approve each citation before RedSpeedUSA sends the violation.
He said he didn’t want to put too much pressure on his staff right away. Instead, the city can increase the number of cameras as the commission deems necessary and based on the data collected from the first two.
The city of High Springs started using one school speed camera at the start of the 2024-2025 school year, Moya said. According to the presentation, High Springs has issued more than 900 citations since then.
The city of Alachua is already working to install a school speed camera, and Alachua County considered the possibility last year.
Florida state law mandates a $100 fine per violation, and these violations will not count as points on a driver’s license or get sent to insurance companies—just like a parking violation.
The Florida Legislature also outlined where the $100 goes: $60 to GPD (with RedSpeedUSA getting $21), $20 to Florida’s general revenue fund, $12 to the county school district, $5 to crossing guard programs and $3 to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for training. The city’s funds are required to pay for the program and other public and pedestrian safety initiatives.
Moya and city staff recommended piggybacking on a contract that RedSpeedUSA already has with the city of Plantation. This process allows the city to move forward quicker and with a proven contract.
Unlike the High Springs contract, Gainesville opted to only use the speed cameras when the school zones area active and half an hour before and after. The other option would use the cameras the entire time the school is in session.
The cameras only issue a citation for a vehicle going more than 10 miles per hour above the posted speed limit—a requirement of Florida state laws.
A citation will be sent to the car owner, not the driver, based on the license plate. That owner can decide to pay the $100 or contest the citation before a special magistrate. If a citation is ignored, it will turn into a uniform traffic citation with more severe penalties. If the uniform traffic citation is ignored, it could turn into a suspended driver’s license.
The data from the High Springs program shows 10 to 12 of the citations turned into uniform traffic citations, according to the city of Gainesville’s presentation.
GPD and city staff recommended starting with Lincoln Middle School along SE 11th Street and Williston Road and Talbot Elementary School along NW 43rd Street. These two school zones had the highest amount of speeding, according to a 2024 traffic study done by RedSpeedUSA.
Commissioner Ed Book said he’d like an expansion to include the other two quadrants of Gainesville. That way, no matter where in the city, a driver knows there are speed cameras nearby.
Mayor Harvey Ward said he’d also like to see more cameras. He worried about drivers slowing down around Lincoln or Talbot but continuing at higher speeds in school zones where there aren’t cameras.
“People will do that, not because people are bad but just because that’s how people drive,” Ward said. “That’s a thing that people do; they make those calculations.”
For both the school speed cameras and the red-light cameras, commissioners hope the presence of cameras in the city will enforce the habit of driving at the speed limit—no matter the location.
Karla Rodrigues Silva, Gainesville’s Vision Zero coordinator, said most national studies on the topic show a 7% to 62% reduction in total crashes when red-light cameras are in use. Gainesville had 22,242 crashes from 2018 to 2022, with crashes at intersections accounting for 41% of those. That includes 360 crashes resulting from running red lights.
The red-light cameras will operate in a similar way to school speed cameras but with some distinctions.
These citations will cost $156 but still won’t count as points or get sent to insurance. The money is also split differently: $75 to Gainesville (with a portion to the vendor), $70 to Florida’s general revenue fund, $10 to the Department of Health’s Emergency Medical Services Trust Fund and $3 to the Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Trust Fund.
Unlike the school speed cameras, Gainesville can use its portion of the citation for anything. City Manager Cynthia Curry said these funds will first need to cover GPD’s cost to run the program.
Ward said the programs wouldn’t be a revenue generator for the city after covering the costs, but he said the goal is to save lives and increase health, making the cost worthwhile.
Moya said the programs would impact staff. GPD has faced a staff shortage for several years, like that at other departments.
“It gives me a little bit of concern now, looking at two programs that have a direct impact on our staffing and my folks,” Moya said, encouraging a conservative approach.
Gainesville staff showed the 15 intersections with the most red-light violations. Of those, staff recommended placing the first two cameras at the intersections of NE 39th Avenue and NE Waldo Road and NW 23rd Avenue and NW 6th Street.
The following is the full list of intersections considered.
- Windmeadows Boulevard & SW 34th Street/SW 34th Street & Archer Road
- W Newberry Road & NW 62nd Street
- NW 23rd Avenue & NW 6th Street
- SW 16th Avenue & SW 13th Street
- E University Avenue & S Main Street
- Hull Road & SW 34th Street
- NW 13th Street & NW 16th Avenue
- SE 4th Avenue & SE Williston Road
- SW Archer Road & SW 23rd Drive
- SW Archer Road & SW 40th Boulevard
- W University Avenue & SW 13th Street
- W University Avenue & SW 34th Street
- SW 20th Avenue & SW 62nd Boulevard
- NE 39th Avenue & NE 15th Street
- NE 39th Avenue & NE Waldo Road
Commissioner James Ingle said he worried about citations getting accidentally ignored and citizens ending up with suspended licenses without knowing it.
He pointed out that the citation will get sent to the owner’s registered address, but he said those addresses don’t always get updated, especially if people move often or get stuck in tough circumstances like couch surfing with friends or living in cars. He said it might impact people already on the lower side of the economic scale.
Plus, Ingle said the uniform traffic citation, sent if the initial $100 citation is ignored, will also go to the same address.
He asked that GPD track the number of people whose citation advanced beyond just the $100 payment.
Overall, no public comment was made on the issues. Ward said that silence likely won’t last.
“Make no mistake y’all, there will be some blowback on this, there will be some big brother conversations about this,” Ward said. “But this is going to save lives, I think.”
There is a reason why most cities don’t use camera’s anymore. The main reason is constitutional issues. (problems) People who have a clue about law simply go to court and demand to confront the accuser of the violation. Since a camera was used and the company is in another state, little hard to do that and the ticket gets thrown out of court. The 2nd problem is: regardless if somebody pays the ticket or not, the city still has to pay for the picture.
I recommend that the city ask why other cities don’t use (or discontinue) this type of service. A simple news article historical search will give you the answer. Plus the city needs to do a audit on it’s spending since they want to keep raising revenue to pay for their bills. Why don’t you look at what you can cut. Like the 3 million they spent on somebody sweeping University ave side walks. (Who thought that was a good idea?)
Move forward on ALL of the locations. It is a guaranteed revenue raiser based on the amount of speeding and running of lights in this area AND the city will be safer (Archer Rd is Russian roulette at times due to speeders), As for Ingle’s “concern (“,,,Commissioner James Ingle said he worried about citations getting accidentally ignored and citizens ending up with suspended licenses without knowing it….”) I say this – Thanks for your concern but maybe people will pay more attention and after a fewcof these are publicized it will no longer be an issue? .
Cameras are desperately needed at all the intersections along 43rd Street! Flagrant speeding and running of red lights resulting in serious accidents!
This is great news. Gainesville has needed redlight cameras for years. So many terrible drivers commute through our city daily with zero regard for anyone’s safety.
I rented an SUV in Ireland for10 days in 2015. The first thing I noticed is that no one was speeding on Interstates or local roads. No real police presents but cameras everywhere. On the dashboard a signal told you what the speed limit was.
Dear Beatnik, it’s exactly the same in Germany. The rental car tells you your speed and there are cameras everywhere. It works very well, and provides cities and rural communities alike with some extra income earned by fining scofflaws!
Cameras at everything intersection is going to make individuals feel like they are always being watched, spied on, and they have no privacy. This causes mutiny. This causes anger amongst citizens. This causes drivers to become daredevils and showoffs for the Camera Lense and Video Feed . Policia should be in the area as in the past year’s to catch and ticket or arrest these Criminal, Habitual Offenders , Criminally Insane Traffic Violators.
I think it is cute that they are promoting this as a safety issue. It is simply a revenue enhancement. Everybody gets a “taste” of the take. In two years, they will be pulling it all out like most municipalities that buy into it.
Gainesville just keeps getting worse and worse.
terrible drivers are terrible drivers. this won’t stop them, as many cities that have discontinued cameras have found out. as the article acknowledged, you’re just going to be charging late fees and putting unnecessary additional penalties on poor people who aren’t present at their licensed addresses all because a camera is doing the job of what a policeman should actually be doing.
This technology will always yield some false positive results and requires human confirmation before citations are issued. For the system to have credibility, confirmations must be both accurate and timely and may involve considerably more personnel than expected. There also must be a robust and expeditious process to contest citations. Is the judicial system funded and prepared? While enhanced enforcement may well be desirable, it won’t be the big revenue generator the vendors are pitching.
and how many accidents have there been at these two intersections?
Cameras are not the complete answer…better education before being allowed to drive under supervision, increased standards before being issued final license and stiffer penalties, when in violation.
And what happens on the days that schools aren’t in session, but the school zones are still indicating as active? Many municipalities have removed their cameras due to an increase in rear-end collisions and public perception of them being simply revenue-generating tools and not adding to public safety. Bad idea. But then, this IS the Gainesville “Bad Ideas” City Commission we’re talking about here…