Dozens of New Red Light Cameras May Be Coming to Philadelphia
We've mapped all the proposed locations. It's fair to say there's probably a camera coming to a neighborhood near you.
Prepare for a red light camera invasion in Philadelphia (photo illustration by Ticia Albano)
Philadelphians have become ridiculously lawless drivers. And red light cameras in Philadelphia make the city lots and lots of money.
Given those two facts, it should come as no surprise that the dreaded Philadelphia Parking Authority, which administers the city’s red light cameras, is considering a dramatic increase to the number of those cameras in Philadelphia. They’ve proposed a dramatic increase for red-light camera fines as well.
According to data provided by the PPA, there are currently 34 intersections surveilled by red light cameras, the first of which became operational in 2005. That first intersection was Grant Avenue and the Roosevelt Boulevard in Northeast Philadelphia. Nearly two decades later, this is what red light camera coverage currently looks like in Philadelphia:
But that’s nothing.
There are cameras in the works for seven more intersections in Philadelphia. Those intersections are as follows:
- Kelly Drive and Eakins Oval
- 20th Street and JFK Boulevard
- Front Street and Hunting Park Avenue
- 58th Street and Baltimore Avenue
- Ford Road and Belmont Avenue
- Kelly Drive and Falls Bridge
- 17th Street and Washington Avenue
But then there are all of the cameras under consideration. And, well, it’s safe to say there’s probably a red light camera coming to a neighborhood near you.
The PPA is currently studying proposals for cameras at 64 more intersections. In other words, if all of those are approved, we could be looking at 105 intersections surveilled by cameras in Philadelphia. That’s more than triple the number we boast now. We’ve mapped all of the proposed locations below. You can zoom in and click on each icon to see the exact intersection.
Here’s a look at all of the cameras that have been either installed (red), approved (yellow) or proposed (blue):
During the last fiscal year, Philadelphia’s red light camera program issued 374,262 violation notices to drivers, or a little more than 1,000 a day, on average. That’s actually a sharp increase of 39.2 percent over the previous fiscal year. The PPA attributes that increase both to upgrades in their camera technology — allowing for the detection of more violations — and to the aforementioned terrible driving exhibited by drivers in Philadelphia. “The nearly 40-percent increase in red light camera violations in FY 2024 underscores the ongoing challenges in driver compliance with traffic laws in Philadelphia,” reads a report issued by the PPA in September.
Just what intersections raked in the most money? The cameras at 52nd Street and Lancaster Avenue, Broad and Vine streets, and York Street and Aramingo Avenue produced the most violations. In all, Philadelphia’s camera program accounted for about $32 million in revenue in the last fiscal year. But if the PPA had its way, that number would be more like $48 million. (The PPA has been pushing legislators in Harrisburg to up the fines from $100 to $150.)
Yes, there are ways to try to beat a red-light camera ticket. Some folks also illegally obscure their license plate to evade detection in the first place. But here’s a wild and crazy idea: Just become a safer driver and don’t go through red lights.
