Why traffic citations matter
San Francisco determined 5 moving violations that are among the top factors for injury collisions. These include:
- Running Red Lights
- Running Stop Signs
- Speeding
- Failing to Give Pedestrians the Right of Way
- Failing to Yield While Turning
The San Francisco Police Department prioritizes these for enforcement.
Tracking the citations for these violations help us better understand what enforcement is happening in each city. This data can show how common these citations are. This data also can show how much cities enforce these rules. However, some cities may have different traffic enforcement priorities. Additionally, some cities may prioritize warnings and education over citations, so their rates are lower. Warning and education data is difficult to track and compare across cities, including San Francisco. This may be an area for future research.
Learn more about the research behind this initiative, called "Focus on the Five" in San Francisco. Explore the San Francisco data further in the Traffic Violation Reports and the "Focus on the Five" Scorecard.
How to use this dashboard
Select a traffic citation type at the top to see the rate for that year. The first dashboard shows that citation type per 100,000 residents. The second dashboard has the same information shown as a proportion of all traffic citations in that year.
Select cities at the bottom to add them to the visualization.
Key notes about this dataset: These dashboards only explore officer-issued citations and not any issued by automated cameras. Boston and Portland use a combined category for their Red Light and Stop Sign citations. Those cities will not show under the individual Red Light or Stop Sign categories, but will show as Red Light and Stop Signs combined.
Traffic citations per 100,000 residents
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
To report this data, we found the equivalent traffic code in each state to the five California codes. Each city used a different data source. Where publicly available, they are below:
Some of the cities only had data for part of the time period.
We excluded any citations issued by automated speed enforcement or red light cameras. This only compares officer-issued citations.
As mentioned above, citations are an incomplete indicator. To some extent, they show the frequency with which certain violations occur in a city. In contrast, they also show some priorities of a traffic enforcement team. For example, it might show that a traffic enforcement team is prioritizing stop signs over red lights. However, as these two things can be in contrast, consider this the data as a useful but limited resource.
A technical limitation of the dashboarding software (Microsoft PowerBI): When all cities are selected in the filter, not all city names may show in the dashboard. Use the legend to confirm the city by color, the tooltip (if available), or change the filters to view fewer cities at once.
To view the full dataset, visit the DataSF Open Data Portal.
Key traffic citations as a proportion of total traffic citations
Data notes and sources
Data notes and sources
Please see data notes for the above dashboard for full information.
A technical limitation of the dashboarding software (Microsoft PowerBI): When all cities are selected in the filter, not all city names may show in the dashboard. Use the legend to confirm the city by color, the tooltip (if available), or change the filters to view fewer cities at once.
To view the full dataset, visit the DataSF Open Data Portal.
Key takeaways
Red light citations make up a greater proportion of San Francisco's citations than those of its peers. In 2022, red light violations made up 11% of San Francisco’s total citations, as compared to 5-7% for most of its peers.
San Francisco’s total stop sign citations have declined in the past few years. San Francisco has declined from close to 1,500 citations per 100,000 residents in 2014 to just under 50 in 2022. San Francisco's stop sign citation rate currently is of a similar scale as Chicago and Seattle's 2022 rates (close to 60 and 35).
San Francisco's proportion of speeding citations is higher than most than its peers. In 2022, speeding citations made up about 30% of San Francisco’s total traffic citations. Los Angeles has the same rate. Miami was the next closest at 26%, but Seattle and New York were much lower, at 10% and 15%.
Automated enforcement
Automated enforcement uses cameras to issue citations. Many cities have installed cameras for automated enforcement in addition to officer-issued citations. Red light cameras and speed cameras are the 2 primary kinds of automated enforcement.
However, some cities or states limit the use of automated enforcement through legislation. For example, California prohibited use of automated speed enforcement until 2024. In 2024, California approved automated speed enforcement for 6 cities, including San Francisco. In Boston and Minneapolis, state legislation prohibits both red light and speed cameras.
Automated enforcement data is also difficult to compare from one city to another. The rates of citations vary dramatically based on the number of speed or red light cameras in place. We briefly explore the available information below.
Red Light Cameras:
- In 2022, San Francisco had close to 10,000 red light camera citations and just under 20 cameras.
- In 2022, Chicago had close to 680,00 red light camera citations and an estimated 300 cameras in place.
- In 2022, Miami had just under 100,000 red light camera citations and close to 500 cameras.
- In 2022, New York City had around 630,000 red light camera citations from 230 red light cameras.
Automated Speed Enforcement
- In 2022, Chicago had close to 2.8 million speed camera citations and 160 speed cameras.
- In 2021, New York City had nearly 4.4 million speed camera citations and approximately 2,500 speed cameras. New York City is reported to have the most speed cameras of all US cities.
As San Francisco implements its automated speed enforcement, it opens up opportunities for future exploration. Future benchmarking efforts may consider the various possibilities to compare automated citations across peer cities.
Explore other metrics
Visit the Vision Zero Benchmarking home page to learn more about the effort and explore other metrics.