Of the thousands of red-light tickets issued this year in San Francisco, the hot spots appear to be intersections leading commuters in and out of the city.
The epicenter, according to new city data, is Oak Street and Octavia Boulevard. So far this year, the city has issued 1,631 tickets to motorists there for running red lights or making illegal turns on red.
The largest share of tickets at the intersection (677, or 40%) cited drivers heading north on Octavia past Oak, likely entering the city from Highway 101. Another 517 got tickets for illegal right turns from Octavia onto Oak, while 437 were caught running a red light while driving east on Oak through Octavia.
So far this year, the city has written a total of 8,341 tickets for drivers running red lights or making illegal turns on red.
The second most-ticketed intersection is 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard, which accounted for 1,363 red-light citations. The distribution between northbound and southbound drivers on 19th Avenue — a common alternative to the Great Highway for drivers accessing Highways 1 and 280 — is nearly even, with 646 and 717 red-light tickets, respectively.
The camera that has caught the most red-light runners this year is at Van Ness Avenue and Broadway: 1,119 tickets have been issued to southbound drivers for illegally turning left onto Broadway.
San Francisco operates 19 red-light cameras at 13 intersections along major thoroughfares and plans to install eight more. Most cameras were installed in 2020, yielding roughly 10,000 tickets annually. The fee for running a red light at the Octavia-Oak intersection is $485, according to a February ticket reviewed by The Standard.
The few red-light cameras San Francisco installed in 1996 came back online in 2019 after the San Francisco Chronicle found that the out-of-date film cameras hadn’t been working for months.
Meanwhile, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency plans to install 33 automated speed-enforcement cameras next year.
The transit agency estimates that automated enforcement and education led to a 66% drop in injury collisions from running red lights between 1997 and 2022.
“The more that people know that red lights are being monitored, the less likely they are to drive dangerously through intersections and put pedestrians and other drivers at risk,” the SFMTA said in a statement.
Red-light cameras are at:
- Sixth Street at Bryant Street in SoMa, southbound and eastbound
- Fourth Street at Harrison Street in SoMa, southbound and westbound Sixth Street at Folsom Street in SoMa, southbound
- Eighth Street at Folsom Street in SoMa, southbound
- 19th Avenue at Sloat Boulevard in the Outer Sunset, northbound and southbound
- Park Presidio Boulevard at Lake Street, southbound
- Fell Street at Masonic Avenue in the Panhandle, westbound
- Hayes Street at Polk Street in Civic Center, southbound and westbound
- Divisadero Street at Bush Street in Lower Pacific Heights, northbound
- Van Ness Avenue at Broadway in Pacific Heights, southbound
- Market Street at Octavia Boulevard in Mint Hill, eastbound
- Oak Street at Octavia Boulevard in Hayes Valley, eastbound and northbound
- South Van Ness Ave at 14th Street in the Mission, northbound
Intersections that will get new red-light cameras are:
- Harrison Street at Sixth Street in SoMa, westbound
- Presidio Avenue at Pine Street in Laurel Heights, northbound
- Masonic Avenue at Fell Street, northbound
- Divisadero Street at Oak Street in the Panhandle, southbound
- Gough Street at Oak Street in Hayes Valley, southbound
- Geary Boulevard at Gough Street, eastbound
- Golden Gate Avenue at Franklin Street in Cathedral Hill, eastbound
- Franklin Street at Lombard Street, off the Union Street shopping corridor, northbound