SFMTA explains discrepancies in data as it gears up to begin citating drivers for speeding

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- As San Francisco continues to roll out its high-speed cameras at 33 locations. We are taking a closer look into the data.

All eyes are on San Francisco as it becomes the first city in the state to implement a network of high-speed cameras. The first data released by SFMTA on Tuesday alarming transportation advocates.

"One-thousand people driving over 11 miles per hour above the speed limit per day just on these cameras that are activated. It really communicates how much this problem has not been getting the attention it deserves," said Christopher White, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle coalition.

Right now, SFMTA is only issuing warnings, because not all the cameras are online.

"The intersections with the most warnings was Fulton Street between Arguello Street and 2nd Street where we've had more than 900 warnings a day," said Julie Kirschbaum, SFMTA Director during Tuesday's Board meeting.

In 2024, SFMTA gathered data on the 33 locations where they have the cameras.

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The 18 locations that are operational right now showed 13,000 potential violations each day, but the data released this week showed 1,026 warnings were issued each day at those locations.

"I think it was an accurate image of what speeding was happening at that time, but conditions have changed since then. We've had this information campaign. You'll drive by these sites, and you'll see the camera flashing," said Shannon Hake, SFMTA speed safety program manager.

We spoke to Shannon Hake, SFMTA speed safety program manager, to understand the discrepancies in locations like Geary Blvd. from 7th Ave. to 8th Ave. where SFMTA data showed 4,440 daily speeding vehicles in 2024, but in April 2025 that location only averages 49 daily speeding warnings. So, what happened?

"Only one of our two cameras are active there. At certain blocks we have two cameras installed at the same block, and that's because the cameras only take pictures of the rear license plate of a vehicle," said Hake. "So we're really only seeing half of half of the real picture of what speeding is happening at that location."

The agency said people are also changing their behavior. We asked some drivers.

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"I have definitely slowed way down," said Billy Lane, a San Francisco driver.

"It hasn't changed the way that I drive," said Marisol Reyes, a San Francisco driver.

Hake said it's month one and they want to get the process right.

"These were all of the violations that passed two human screeners, where we had a very clear image of a license plate. The lighting was right. The image was right. We found a match with the license plate that had an address that we could mail a citation to right now, we're getting just such a smaller sample from that overall number of people that we're speeding because we have all these safeguards in place," said Hake.

SFMTA cannot issue speeding tickets until the 56 cameras at the 33 locations are on. They are targeting the month of August to begin citations.