High Speed Cameras Coming to Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway

Thanks to a change in legislation last year, Portland is in the process of installing safety cameras along Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway. The stretch is considered one of the city's high crash corridors.

The cameras - between Southwest 30th and Southwest 39th along the highway - were being installed Monday, according to the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

The state legislature approved use of the cameras last year. Previously, police departments have only been allowed to use the cameras at dangerous stop lights and in vans that parked on shoulders.

They were also only allowed to use the cameras for four hours at a time.

PBOT says that they don't have a firm go live date for the cameras because there are several steps including electrical inspections and the power being turned on by PGE.

They hope to have them on by later this week or early next week.

"We want people know that the cameras are there and drive more slowly," PBOT spokesman John Brady told Patch. "That is our top priority."

Last week, PBOT mailed postcards to people letting them know the cameras are coming.

For the first 30 days that the cameras are in operation, drivers will be given a warning. After that the city will begin issuing tickets that will start at $160.

After Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, the city plans to expand the program.

In December, a stretch of Southeast 122nd from Powell Boulevard to Foster Road will get the cameras. That will be followed by Marine Drive in February and Southeast Division in April.

Portland has 10 dangerous stretches of road that are considered high crash corridors. They account for three percent of the city's streets yet are the location of more than half of the city's pedestrian fatalities.