Do speed cameras make drivers slow down?
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is taking a page out of Minneapolis' book to get drivers to slow down.
The agency recently set up a speed camera in a work zone along I-35W. But how good is that technology at changing driver's behavior?
It's been a year now since traffic safety cameras were placed around Minneapolis to curb speeding and hopefully the danger it creates. Tens of thousands of drivers have learned the hard way they exist.
"In that first year we've seen consistently reductions in speeding across all five of our traffic safety camera locations," said Ethan Fawley. He's the Transportation Planning Manager for the City of Minneapolis.
"Compared to that first month (October 2025), we've got more than 110,000 fewer speeders going by these locations," Fawley said.
Fawley said the number of people driving at least 10 mph over the speed limit has dropped nearly 50% while the number of people driving 20 mph over the limit is down more than 60%.
One area seeing the biggest reduction is Nicollet Avenue near 46th street. In the program's first month, 8,400 drivers were caught going 10 mph over the speed limit in the southbound lanes. But from January to June of this year, the monthly average was around 2,500.
Signs about the cameras are set up along the street, the first warning a driver gets to slow down. But it takes another layer of enforcement to really drive the point home.
"I expected that we would see more reductions right from the sign and the launch of the program, but we really started to see the reduction once citations were going out last November," said Fawley.
A city spokesperson said 67,146 drivers received a warning for speeding in the program's first year. Another 24,125 drivers received a citation.
The area that saw the highest number of warnings was the camera monitoring the westbound lanes of 3rd Street North. Speeders passing it received 11,933 warnings. The camera monitoring the northbound lanes on the 1800 block of Fremont Avenue North led to 4,008 citations, the highest number of the group.
"We're not trying to penalize people. We are trying to reduce unsafe speeding and make it safe on our streets for everyone," said Fawley.
Now that we know speeding has dropped at the five locations, has there also been a drop in the number crashes around the cameras?
Fawley said they're working to collect more data and do a crash analysis. He added that crashes at the five camera locations are relatively rare.
"We've seen from camera systems in other states that they always are reducing speeds, reducing crashes, reducing injuries and reducing deaths," he said.
Speeding was a factor in 29% percent of fatal crashes across the country in 2024. Add in icy conditions and that number rises to 38%.
The cameras are not automated license plate readers, meaning they do not track every vehicle passing by. Pictures and video are only captured when the camera senses a vehicle going 10 miles per hour or more above the speed limit.
"We're restricted in the data that we can collect and how that can be used," said Fawley. "We've worked really diligently to build those privacy protections into the program because we know that's so important for our community."
From January to August of 2026, a spokesperson said the city spent $451,791 on the pilot program. It generated $231,381 in revenue from citations in that time, which represents only a portion of the citations paid since the State of Minnesota also receives a share. The city's share of outstanding citations is around $650,000.
"Under state law, any citation revenues that exceed program operating expenses must be invested in traffic safety and traffic calming efforts," the spokesperson said. The plan is for the pilot program be to financially self-sustaining.
The pilot program in Minneapolis runs through July 2029. MNDOT's camera on 35W in Burnsville will only be up for October before moving to other locations.
Minneapolis released data its mid-year report on the cameras earlier this summer. Click here to view it.
