California's single largest army of speed cameras is about to invade, striking at the heart of car culture: Los Angeles.
And if a recent test in Malibu is any indication, the impact will be dramatic. Over a single week in September, Malibu's handful of speed cameras clocked about 100,000 speed violations—by far the highest rate of any tests so far statewide.
PCH, famous for its top-down, sea-spray and wind-in-the-hair carefree cruising, is also home to a series of deadly crashes, making the speed cameras welcome to many despite the increased potential for speeding tickets.
With the ongoing installation of more than 150 speed cameras in Los Angeles County, there will soon be hundreds of speed cameras up and down the Golden State, the product of a pilot program that began rolling out two years ago.
It started with what officials say was a successful launch in San Francisco and Oakland, and now five additional cities are putting the final touches on their speed-camera plans allowed under laws passed in 2023 and 2024: Los Angeles, Malibu, Glendale, Long Beach and San Jose.
The cameras are expected to be operational in most, if not all, of those cities this fall.
So far, only cameras in San Francisco and Oakland have begun issuing tickets — the other cities have grappled with various delays ranging from a Trump administration lawsuit to a need to fine-tune speed limits.
Based on what's happened in the Bay Area, motorists can expect the cameras to bring about dramatic change on the road: Speeding has been reduced more than 70 percent on average in areas near the cameras and hundreds of thousands of tickets have been issued, officials said.
Here's a look at how the speed cameras work and more about each city's plan:
Per the California law, cameras can only be installed in state-defined safety corridors, school zones, and areas with a history of street racing or sideshows. They must also be placed evenly throughout different socioeconomic neighborhoods.
Once a city installs its cameras, a 60-day warning period begins. That's when drivers will get notices when the cameras catch them speeding.
After that 60-day period is up, drivers will receive fines based on how far over the speed limit they were going:
The effort is intended to serve as a pilot program through 2032 to measure the impacts and best practices before more speed cameras are installed throughout the state.
Authorities announced this week they'll begin activating cameras in LA beginning Oct. 26 and hope to have all 125 cameras activated before the end of the year.
That's by far the largest number of cameras of any city statewide. San Jose — the second-largest city in the program — expects to install 28 cameras.
In 2025, 290 people died in traffic incidents in the city, according to the Los Angeles Police Department's most recent data. There were more traffic-related deaths than homicides last year as well.
San Francisco's 33 cameras have been issuing citations since August 2025.
Between August 2025 and the end of April 2026, the program had issued nearly 164,000 citations, according to the California Post.
City officials say the cameras have had a dramatic impact on changing drivers' behavior.
A study published earlier this year by SFMTA found speeding decreased by 79percent near the cameras, compared to levels before the program began.
Oakland's 18 speed cameras went live in January. The locations account for 60 percent of severe and fatal collisions in the city.
In the first six months of the program, the cameras issued nearly 200,000 citations, KQED reported.
As is the case across the Bay, Oakland's cameras have impacted drivers' behavior: The number of vehicles traveling 11 miles per hour or more over the speed limit dropped by an average of 70 percent near the camera locations, according to the station.
San Jose has identified 28 proposed locations for speed cameras and planned to install them last year. But a legal battle over federal grant funding has stymied the rollout.
San Jose was going to use an $8.5 million federal grant from the Biden administration, but the Trump administration updated the terms and conditions of that grant. A lawsuit followed unsuccessful negotiations.
The funds were being held until that's settled, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan told NBC Bay Area earlier this year.
A recent social media post suggested San Jose may be getting ready to install its cameras this fall. Patch has reached out to the city for confirmation and more information.
Meanwhile, the city installed cameras designed to catch people running red lights in the fall. The cameras began issuing citations in January.
The warning period for Long Beach's 18 cameras will begin on Wednesday. The cameras will begin issuing tickets on Dec. 7, according to the city.
And more cameras are on the way. A new law signed last week by Gov. Gavin Newsom will allow the city to place two additional cameras along Pacific Coast Highway beginning next year. The current program did not allow cameras to be installed along the route.
The 8-mile stretch of PCH through Long Beach accounted for 39 of the city's 192 traffic fatalities since 2020. PCH accounts for 20 percent of the city's crash fatalities, and three traffic fatalities have occurred along the highway this year, according to Sen. Lena Gonzalez's office.
Glendale plans to install cameras at nine locations across the city. In December, it hired a contractor to install the cameras, according to the Crescenta Valley Weekly.
City officials had expected to have the cameras installed this spring, with the warning period beginning in the summer, according to the city.
The current status of Glendale's cameras is unclear. Patch has reached out to the city for an update.
Pacific Coast Highway has been the site of several high-profile deadly crashes, and the city declared a Local Emergency in November 2023 following the deaths of four Pepperdine students. In September 2024, Gov. Newsom signed SB 1297, which authorized speed cameras along PCH.
Officials previously identified five locations for cameras along the highway: Decker Canyon Road; between Guernsey Avenue and Morning View Drive; Latigo Canyon Road; between Carbon Beach Terrace and Carbon Canyon Road; and Tuna Canyon Road.
Several cameras are already operating in a testing and data-gathering phase, but they are not issuing warnings or citations, accessing Department of Motor Vehicles information or taking any enforcement action, according to the city.
The city this week announced it has delayed the start of its speed camera warning period until November as it makes adjustments and continues a traffic study in eastern Malibu.
Preliminary data collected from Sept. 16 through Sept. 24 recorded about 100,000 speeding violations at four camera locations, according to the city. About 86 percent of those violations occurred in eastern Malibu.
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