Red light enforcement program comes to Chilco St. and Bayfront Expressway with a 30-day grace period

In an effort to reduce collisions and make city streets safer, Menlo Park is expanding its red light photo enforcement program on December 9, 2016.

Cameras and violation sensors will monitor the intersection of Chilco Street and Bayfront Expressway (Highway 84) in the westbound direction.

This will be Menlo Park’s fourth intersection monitored by a red light camera. Red light running has been responsible for 28% of major injury collisions and 14% of fatality collisions in Menlo Park.

The program is seen by City officials as an important step to improve the safety and flow of local traffic. However, the City is giving drivers, who live, work, or travel through Menlo Park, a 30-day grace period before actual citations are issued.

The program uses an automated camera system which takes four photographs capturing the vehicle position in the intersection, the license plate, and the driver’s face. The camera system also records 12 seconds of constant, live streaming video of the violation, six seconds before and six seconds after the violation.

The camera system only becomes active after the light has turned red. Vehicles crossing the limit line after the light has turned red are detected automatically and the camera system records the images. After a Menlo Park Police Department employee reviews the images and video, a citation is mailed out to the registered owner of the vehicle.

All violators captured during the first 30 days at the new location will receive a warning letter notifying them that their vehicle was captured violating the red light at this intersection. The 30-day grace period will end at midnight on January 7, 2017. Violators will begin to receive traffic citations in the mail for violations beginning January 8, 2017.