Bellevue gives green light to traffic cameras

Since October, hundreds of drivers who sped past Stevenson or Lake Hills elementary schools in Bellevue have discovered $124 tickets in their mailboxes.

Drivers who race through red lights will soon find the same.

The city has installed new traffic cameras at two intersections along 148th Avenue Northeast and as of Monday, started sending warnings to red-light runners who blow through the busy intersections on the major thoroughfare.

And starting Feb. 2, Bellevue will stop playing nice, and drivers will get not warnings, but $124 tickets.

Cameras are tracking drivers at the intersections of 148th and Bel-Red Road and also at 148th and Main Street, monitoring northbound and southbound traffic at the Bel-Red intersection and southbound traffic at Main Street, said Bellevue police spokeswoman Carla Iafrate.

The city may add red-light cameras to four more intersections, but the exact locations have not been decided, she said. The revenue from the citations, which are treated like parking tickets, goes to the general fund and to the cost of the red-light camera program.

Traffic cameras have been controversial. Several local attorneys have sued municipalities across the state, arguing that the cities are making millions more on red-light traffic citations than state law allows. Bellevue, which approved its red-light camera program in April, is one of the cities named in the suit.

Attorney David Breskin said it would be more responsible for municipalities to wait until the lawsuit is resolved before installing the cameras. The lawsuit is asking the cities to repay thousands of drivers who received tickets.

"It underscores clearly that the cities view these cameras as a moneymaking proposition rather than for any other public benefit," he said.

Since installing red-light cameras in July 2006, Seattle has collected nearly $8 million in revenue on 89,100 tickets from red-light and speed cameras through 2009, the city said.

Most of the money goes to Seattle's general fund, with a small percentage going to city parks, city officials said.

Bellevue has given out more than 2,700 tickets since October to people who were caught speeding by the two elementary schools.

With the red-light cameras, drivers should remember they have the right to enter the intersection on a yellow light and continue through the intersection, Iafrate said.

But drivers should not block intersections and should drive defensively, she said.

The Bellevue City Council approved the use of traffic cameras last year on a trial basis for about a year.

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com