How Bellevue’s New Speed Cameras Will Fine Drivers Up to $248 Starting in September

Drivers passing four new locations in Bellevue, Washington are currently getting warnings instead of tickets, but that grace period ends in weeks. The city started a monthlong warning phase the week of August 17 at each new speed camera site, and citations for the four August locations are expected to begin the third week of September. After that, a standard speeding violation costs $124, and speeding through a school zone costs double: $248.

Where the New Cameras Are

Bellevue installed its four newest speed safety cameras at:

148th Avenue Northeast, between Northeast 13th and 10th places, near Highland Middle School; Northeast Eighth Street, between 167th Avenue and 168th Place, in Northeast Bellevue; Forest Drive Southeast, between 138th Avenue Southeast and Southeast 60th Street, near Meadow Wood Park; and Forest Drive Southeast, between Southeast 54th Place and Coal Creek Parkway, near the Coal Creek Natural Area.

Three more cameras are planned later this year at Bellevue Way Southeast near the South Bellevue Park and Ride, Coal Creek Parkway Southeast between Forest Drive Southeast and Southeast 60th Street, and 116th Avenue Northeast near Aegis Living Bellevue Overlake. Bellevue already runs three older automated cameras in school zones, at Stevenson Elementary and Odle Middle School, Lake Hills Elementary, and Sunset Elementary.

Why the City Chose These Spots

City officials selected the new locations based on proximity to hospitals, parks and school walk zones, along with a documented history of speed-related crashes, consistent with state law governing where Washington cities can deploy the technology. Bellevue Transportation Director Andrew Singelakis said the expansion builds on work the city has already done to reduce dangerous driving.

“We know that addressing speed is important to improving traffic safety on Bellevue’s streets,” Singelakis said. “These cameras build on Bellevue’s ongoing efforts to reduce speeding, prevent serious crashes and create safer streets for our entire community.”

The expansion is part of Bellevue’s Vision Zero Initiative, a citywide push to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030. Speed remains the single largest contributing factor in fatal and serious injury crashes in Bellevue, according to the city’s own crash data.

How the Program Works

Each camera location gets its own monthlong warning period, both to let drivers adjust and to give the city time to calibrate and test the equipment before it starts generating citations. Bellevue contracted with Verra Mobility, a national automated traffic enforcement vendor, to run the administrative side of the program. Cameras capture images of a vehicle’s license plate along with evidence of the violation, which is transmitted for review. A Bellevue Police Department officer signs off on every violation before a citation goes out to the vehicle’s registered owner, meaning no ticket is issued purely by an automated system without a human check.

Does It Actually Work?

Washington’s other cities offer a track record. In the first two years after Seattle installed automated speed cameras, violations at its eight camera locations fell from more than 45,000 to under 20,000. Kirkland deployed cameras at three schools and cut the number of drivers exceeding the speed limit by nearly half within two years. Both cities publish annual evaluation reports to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission tracking whether crashes decline at camera locations over time, and Bellevue is expected to do the same as its own program matures.

Washington law requires cities to justify camera placement with crash history and location type rather than allowing cameras anywhere revenue might be highest, a distinction that has shaped legal challenges to camera programs in other states where enforcement locations faced accusations of being chosen for ticket volume instead of safety.

The State Law Behind the Expansion

Washington cities cannot simply install a speed camera wherever they choose. State law restricts automated speed enforcement to school zones, parks, hospital zones and roads with a documented crash history, and requires a public notice period before a camera location goes live. That framework is why Bellevue’s announcement specifically ties each new camera to a nearby school, park or hospital rather than a general traffic corridor. The same law also requires a 30-day warning period before any location can issue paid citations, which is why drivers at the four new sites are receiving written warnings only through mid-September.

Bellevue is part of a broader statewide trend. Washington expanded eligible camera locations in recent years to include active highway work zones, with cameras rolling out in spring 2025 after a 2023 law change, and Seattle updated its own camera ordinances in May 2025 to align with the state’s newer rules and add new camera types. Bellevue’s move to seven total new cameras this year, four now and three later, mirrors the pace of expansion seen in Seattle and Kirkland over the past several years.

The Debate Over Camera Enforcement

Automated speed cameras remain a point of friction in transportation policy nationally, even where crash data supports their use. Critics argue that camera programs can function as revenue generators for cities and raise fairness concerns when fines fall disproportionately on drivers in lower-income neighborhoods who often have fewer transportation alternatives. Groups like the Vision Zero Network have published guidance specifically aimed at helping cities design camera programs that prioritize crash reduction over ticket volume, including recommendations on how fines are set and how enforcement locations are chosen.

Bellevue’s program includes some of those equity-oriented design choices already: the requirement for a documented crash history at each site, the mandatory warning period before citations begin, and the requirement that a police officer personally verify every violation before a ticket is mailed, rather than allowing citations to be issued automatically. Whether the program actually reduces crashes at these specific locations will not be clear until Bellevue publishes its own evaluation data, something Seattle and Kirkland have already done for their longer-running programs.

What Drivers Should Do

Drivers who regularly use 148th Avenue Northeast, Northeast Eighth Street or either stretch of Forest Drive Southeast should slow to the posted limit now, in this warning window, rather than waiting for citations to begin in September. A first violation in the warning phase generates a written warning only, with no fine and no impact on a driving record, but the same violation after the warning period ends triggers the $124 fine, or $248 in a marked school zone. Unlike a moving violation issued by a police officer, Washington’s automated camera tickets are civil infractions that do not add points to a driver’s license, though they still carry the fine and remain enforceable through the municipal court if unpaid. Drivers who receive a citation they believe was issued in error can contest it through Bellevue Municipal Court following the instructions printed on the notice.

Out-of-town drivers passing through Bellevue on Forest Drive Southeast or 148th Avenue Northeast are not exempt. Washington’s automated camera program mails citations to the vehicle’s registered owner regardless of which state issued the plate, and an unpaid fine can follow a driver home through standard collections processes even after the vehicle leaves Bellevue for good. Rental car companies also pass camera citations directly to the renter listed on the agreement, along with an administrative fee, so visitors driving through these corridors should treat the posted limits the same way a resident would.

Sources:

• City of Bellevue: Warning period for new speed cameras begins week of Aug. 17
• KOMO News: Bellevue adding speed cameras at 4 locations; citations begin in September
• Seattle Department of Transportation: Traffic Safety Camera Program