Aramingo Avenue getting red-light cameras

It would have been hard to imagine, 20 years ago, that parts of Aramingo Avenue lined with industrial brownfields and vacant lots might ever be a thriving shopping district.

But on Saturday, Philadelphia will officially recognize the avenue's commercial vitality by training the latest red-light cameras on its two busiest intersections.

The cameras, which identify vehicles passing illegally through stoplights, will activate at 12:01 a.m. New Year's Day at Aramingo and York Street and two miles north at Aramingo and Castor Avenue.

"Commercial development along that corridor has exploded in recent years," said Chris Vogler, manager of red-light photo enforcement for the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

The corridor, which runs through Port Richmond, is home to more than a dozen shopping malls and strip malls, and is dotted with chain stores such as Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, Kmart, and Toys R Us, as well as pharmacies, supermarkets, service stations, and shops.

Aramingo is also proving a popular route to the new SugarHouse Casino, about a mile south of York Street in Fishtown, Vogler said.

The overhead cameras are connected to sensors that detect when a vehicle passes over the white "stop" line after a signal turns red. A camera takes two photos of the offending vehicle and its license plate, which are reviewed by Parking Authority personnel. If their review shows that the car broke the law, Vogler said, the car's owner is fined $100.

Both intersections on Aramingo will have a two-month "grace" period, during which offending motorists will receive warning notices. Violators will be subject to fines starting March 2.

The cameras are the latest in a program inaugurated in 2005, when the General Assembly gave the Parking Authority permission to install the devices at hazardous intersections.

The authority installed its first cameras that year along Roosevelt Boulevard at Grant and Cottman Avenues and Red Lion Road.

Vogler said the cameras at Grant - once the most notorious for red-light running - have reduced violations from 4,000 a year to about 300, and infractions are down 80 percent at Red Lion.

Since 2005, cameras have also been installed at 34th Street and Grays Ferry Avenue; on Roosevelt Boulevard at Welsh and Southampton Roads, and Mascher, Levick, Rhawn, and Ninth Streets; on Broad Street at Oregon and Hunting Park Avenues, South Penn Square, and John F. Kennedy Boulevard; and at 58th and Walnut Streets.

Before Aramingo, the most recent cameras were installed at Henry Avenue and Walnut Lane in Roxborough, and at Rising Sun and Adams Avenues in Summerdale.

Revenues from the fines go to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Vogler said, and not to the Parking Authority or Philadelphia. However, new regulations will allow municipalities with cameras to apply to PennDot for a share of what it collects from the fines.