Seattle is adding three traffic cameras to catch you doing this

Traffic cameras will soon gaze down on three new locations in Seattle, watching for people blocking intersections or driving in restricted bus lanes, the Seattle Department of Transportation announced Monday.

Two of the cameras, near South Lake Union at Denny Way and Stewart Street and at Boren Avenue and Howell Street, will enforce laws against what is called “blocking the box,” by pulling forward into an intersection when traffic has backed up on the next block and getting stuck in front of a red light. Drivers who do this snarl traffic and obstruct crosswalks, which can cause safety problems for pedestrians, particularly those with disabilities.

The third, on the east end of the West Seattle Bridge, will look for people driving in lanes restricted to public transit.

The three cameras will be installed in September. There will be a 30-day warning period before the city turns them on. Then, violators will first receive a warning before receiving a $75 ticket for each subsequent offense.

The new locations will join eight others that were installed in 2021 at locations between Westlake and the Chinatown International District and turned on in 2022. Since May 2022, there have been 389 infractions for blocking the box, and since March 2022, there have been a whopping 53,749 for driving in a bus lane, according to the Seattle Police Department.

The additional cameras are one element of a broader ramping up of automated camera enforcement in Washington, driven by the increasing death toll on the state’s roads and a decline in traffic enforcement by both local and state police agencies.

Enforcement against blocking intersections and unauthorized use of public transit lanes was established by the Legislature in 2020 as part of a pilot program set to last until mid-2023. The Legislature extended the pilot to 2025 during the 2022 session. In that same session, lawmakers also authorized cameras near hospitals and public parks, on streets leading into school zones, in locations known to be used for street racing, and in areas identified by local cities as being particularly dangerous.

The Seattle City Council recently signed off on new cameras in racing areas and is considering legislation that would authorize their use to catch speeding vehicles in high-risk areas.

The new cameras come as on-time performance of King County Metro buses has plunged to its lowest level since 2019, as traffic has returned to city streets and snarled the coaches.

Half of the revenue from the cameras will go to state-level safety projects, and the other half will go toward signal improvements.

Correction: Because of incorrect information provided by the Seattle Police Department, an earlier version of this story gave an incorrect figure for the number of tickets issued after traffic cameras were installed. Since May 2022, there have been 389 for blocking the box, and since March 2022, there have been 53,749 for driving in a bus lane.