Safety Panel Seeks Change in Radar Law

The City Council’s Public Safety Committee voted to support changing a state law regarding the use of radar to enforce speed limits.

Current state law requires that the city conduct speed surveys on streets to determine the actual average speed of traffic and, if it is higher than the posted limit, raising the speed limit on that street before using radar to catch speeders.

Calling the current state law a “glowing example of government not making sense,” Councilwoman Laura Chick, chairwoman of the committee, said she has been in contact with state Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) to introduce a bill that would amend the law.

The current law, enacted to avoid creating speed traps, requires that the speed limit be posted within 5 mph of the speed a survey determines that 85% of the drivers are driving--a level assumed to be safe for the road.

As a result, speed limits have been raised on some business and residential streets as much as 15 mph above the previous limits, city officials said.

“It’s like letting the offenders decide what the rules would be,” Chick said.

Christopher Carlisle, an administrative assistant to Hertzberg, said the assemblyman is interested in the issue and is considering sponsoring the bill.

He added that there are two possible obstacles to the bill’s success: getting it heard by the state Senate Transportation Committee, which has refused to hear similar bills, and writing it so that it does not allow for speed traps.

Representatives of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Police Protective League spoke at the committee meeting in support of changing the law.

Similar bills have failed in the state Legislature primarily because of opposition from the Automobile Club of Southern California. This time, representatives from AAA told the committee it would work with city staff on the issue, but stopped short of giving the club’s support.