HYDE PARK — The speed camera in Washington Park has dished out more than $3.1 million in fines, the highest total in the city, according to city data.
The camera also has logged the highest number of violations in the city, more than 75,000 violations since coming online on Jan. 19, 2014.
The camera, at 536 E. Morgan Dr., rests atop a pole at the southernmost dip of the curving Morgan Drive that links 55th Street in Hyde Park to Garfield Boulevard in Washington Park and is a busy connection between the Dan Ryan and the University of Chicago.
Tickets are not being logged at rush hour, when cars jam the park trying to get to and from the university, but in the middle of the day.
A quarter of all violations were recorded between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., according to city data. This was also when the bigger tickets were mostly issued, up to $100 for going more than 11 miles over the posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour.
The pattern of tickets tracks with citywide numbers, which tend to rise around 11 a.m. and then sharply fall at 4 p.m.
One of the tricks with speed cameras is noticing whether they are for a park and active from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., like in Washington Park, or for a school and logging speeders from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Ben Woodard and Tanveer Ali break down the speed camera data:
That difference may be what’s tripping up drivers with a camera at 7422 S. Jeffery Blvd., one block north of South Shore International College Prep High School.
Unlike other cameras, drivers are being ticketed in the morning. Nearly a quarter of drivers are being ticketed between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.
Along the south lakefront generally, more than $5 million has been collected from six speed cameras that have logged more than 118,000 violations. That accounts for 4 percent of all violations and fines citywide.
The six speed cameras include:
• 536 E. Morgan Dr., 75,480 violations, $3,130,460 in fines
• 5330 S. Cottage Grove Ave., 25,506 violations, $1,061,375 in fines
• 215 E. 63rd St., 5,517 violations, $298,985 in fines
• 1901 E. 75th St., 5,035 violations, $262,080 in fines
• 7422 S. Jeffery Blvd., 4,718 violations, $241,435 in fines
• 6330 S. King Dr., 2,171 violations, $104,745 in fines
Here are all the stories looking at speed camera data across Chicago's neighborhoods.
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