BALTIMORE — Hate them or embrace them, the automatic speed cameras on I-83 are here to stay.
And they're doubling in count, beginning next month.
Watch as residents discuss how they feel about the cameras
WMAR-2 News spotted crews along the highway on Tuesday and Wednesday affixing the additional cameras near the West 41st Street Bridge both north and southbound, in the same location the cameras used to be before a move earlier this year.
There are currently two near Smith and North avenues.
Baltimore DOT confirms that the additional cameras will go live on Sunday, August 3 and there will be no grace period, as the department has previously done.
Once that happens, speed monitoring on the JFX will encompass about a 6.5 mile section of the highway that's a little more than 10 miles long. Two cameras facing North and two facing South.
"It's just too many though. I mean, that just a little stretch of road is, it's a lot of cameras," driver Antwan Rhinehart said.
Maryland law only allows for one camera in each direction to be operational at one time, but the DOT won't be warning drivers which ones are on when.
"They can't beat the system when they rotate them like that. That shouldn't be a problem," driver Brian Knight said."The more people get ticketed for speeding on 83, the less we'll have to worry about people getting injured. They just speed for for no reason."
Other drivers are not a huge fan of the system or the coming changes.
"It's a trap is what it is. It's a setup," Robert Sanders, who takes the highway every other day for work, said, "Tt's just another way to get more money from the tax paying citizens."
During the 2024 fiscal year, the cameras accounted for nearly 28% of the city's speeding tickets generating $5.6 million dollars.
The cameras are tripped when a car is measured going 12 miles or over the speed limit.
Each ticket is $40.
Last year, more than 172,000 citations for speeding on the JFX were issued.
