Starting early next year, drivers who speed through Kingston school zones three times will get fines in the mail as the city rolls out a new automated speed enforcement program. Plans call for the speed cameras to go online sometime in mid-January on streets around Kingston High School, George Washington Elementary and a third school to be determined.

The planned installation by a third-party vendor is the culmination of an effort that began last year when Mayor Steve Noble and the Common Council sought enabling legislation from state lawmakers to conduct an automated speed enforcement pilot program in the city. The resulting legislation will allow the city to operate speed cameras in three school zones for three years, after which lawmakers can seek a new home rule resolution to continue or expand the program. Last week, the Kingston Common Council’s Public Safety and General Government Committee approved a local law to complement the state legislation.

“The state legislation allowed the city to do this if we wish,” city engineer John Schultheis told the committee. “The local law is affirming that we want to do it and makes the enforcement stand up in court if need be.”

The cameras will be active from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on school days for the elementary school zones and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Kingston High School to accommodate night classes. The system will automatically record the speed of each vehicle passing through the school zone. Vehicles who exceed the school zone’s 15 mph speed limit by 11 mph or more will be flagged for violations. System will automatically generate a violation, which will be reviewed by a city employee before it is automatically sent along to the registered owner of the flagged vehicle. Fines for violations will be $50 but they will not result in points on the driver’s license or increased insurance premiums.

Signs announcing the automated enforcement program are already going up around some schools. Plans call for the system to go live in mid-January. There will then be a 30-day period during which violators will receive warnings rather than tickets in the mail. The vendor will install and operate the system in exchange for 30 percent of the revenue generated through violations. The program is not expected to have an impact on the city budget. Some of the city’s share of the revenue will go towards added traffic safety measures like the creation of parklets, speed platforms and other traffic calming infrastructure.

The automated speed enforcement program is the latest initiative by the administration of Mayor Steve Noble to address unsafe driving in the city. The effort has included lowering the city’s speed limit from 30 mph to 25, redesigning streets and crosswalks to boost bike and pedestrian safety and creating a dedicated traffic safety unit in the Kingston Police Department. The two-officer TSU has written thousands of tickets since it was activated, including dozens for speeding in city school zones where they are a regular presence.

In his budget address last week, Noble expressed frustration that the enforcement effort seemed to do little to change drivers’ behavior, as evidenced by the steady rate of violations, and said the crackdown will continue until motorists get the message.

“For traffic safety we envisioned this new paradigm for Kingston where people follow the speed limit, they do not speed through school zones, they were watching for pedestrians and cyclists, they were using their turn signals and they were making sure their cars were registered and inspected,” said Noble. “We did not set a very high bar but unfortunately since January we’ve issued 3,900 tickets. So our community and those who visit it still have a lot to learn.”