In September, a driver on Miller Road was clocked at 87 mph. The posted limit there is 30. Over the same month, Sportsman Club Road recorded a top speed of 80 mph past the Sakai and Woodward school zones, and Blakely Avenue recorded 66 mph in front of Blakely Elementary, according to figures the city shared and the Bainbridge Island Review reported on Oct. 16.
Those three readings explain most of the island's speed camera conversation. The city is not considering cameras across the island. It is considering a small number of them at three addresses, and the open house the city held on Oct. 14 showed that the people who came out to discuss those roads would try other fixes first.
Three Addresses on the Shortlist
An earlier Bainbridge Island Police Department traffic study identified the candidate locations. Sergeant Joseph Fastaia listed them in his outreach presentation to City Council.
| Candidate site | Zone | Posted limit | Highest speed recorded in September |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12000 Miller Rd NE | Miller Road corridor | 30 mph | 87 mph |
| 9343 Sportsman Club Rd | Sakai Intermediate and Woodward Middle School zone | 20/30 mph | 80 mph |
| 4704 Blakely Ave NE | Blakely Elementary School zone | 20/25 mph | 66 mph |
The city's Oct. 16 release names the same three areas without street numbers, and nothing published since March has changed the list.
These sites came from complaints, and the complaints add up. BIPD received more than 800 speeding complaints between January 2025 and September 2026, and the roads that drew the most were Miller Road at Bergman, Sportsman Club Road and Blakely Avenue. In the Review's March coverage, Fastaia said speeding was the top community complaint the department received from 2020 through 2025. He also said a manned patrol can write only about five to six citations an hour.
The collision record points somewhere else. The city counts 641 car-only collisions and 36 collisions involving bikes or pedestrians since 2010, and the highest volume occurred on Highway 305 and near downtown Winslow. Neither is on the shortlist. The program is aimed at speed where children walk to school and at one rural stretch where the top recorded speed was nearly three times the limit. It is not aimed at the island's busiest crash corridors.
State law accounts for some of that. RCW 46.63.250 allows speed cameras in designated places such as school speed and walk zones, public park zones and hospital zones. Outside those areas, a jurisdiction may add one camera per 10,000 residents at locations with elevated speeding-related crash risk. The legislature broadened those categories in 2024 through ESHB 2384, which added parks, school walk zones and work zones. Two of the three Bainbridge candidates sit in school zones. Miller Road would have to qualify under the higher-risk allowance or another designation, and the city would need to show the need for every site before installing anything.
What the Room at Blakely Elementary Asked For
About 50 people came to the Oct. 14 open house at Blakely Elementary. When asked which approaches they would support to slow drivers down, attendees answered this way, as the Review tallied it:
- 18 supported speed bumps or speeding tickets
- 17 supported community education
- 9 supported more police enforcement
- 9 chose "other," including painted stripes and flashing lights for high-speed drivers
- 8 supported narrower travel lanes that create bends in the roadway
- 7 supported automated speed safety cameras
Cameras came last on the list. The same attendees ranked their priorities as reducing serious crashes and injuries, protecting privacy, and helping people feel safer walking, rolling and biking. The city frames cameras the same way. "This is just one possible tool in a tool kit that the city is considering," Hannah Boettcher, the city's sustainable transportation coordinator, told the Review. "There are other tools out there like speed bumps."
Privacy has been part of the debate since the beginning. At the March 10 council meeting, Councilmember Mike Nelson cast the only vote against moving ahead with outreach, citing data security and the risk of hacking, the Review reported. The rules that answer that concern are written into state law, and they are fairly specific.
What a Camera on Miller Road Would and Would Not Record
The city has been direct on one point. These are not Flock cameras, and the city is not considering Flock license plate readers. According to the city's summary of RCW 46.63.220, a speed safety camera may capture an image of a vehicle and its plate only when an infraction occurs. It may not record passing traffic continuously or show the faces of drivers or passengers, and the data may be used only to enforce traffic infractions. The city also said images are not kept after a violation is dismissed or adjudicated.
Several details remain unsettled:
- Speed threshold. Drivers would not be ticketed for going one or two mph over the limit, but the city has not published the exact trigger.
- Fine. BIPD said the amount is undecided. It is typically around $130 and doubled in school zones.
- Reductions. The city said eligible low-income first-time offenders would receive automatic fine reductions.
- Revenue. State law limits camera revenue to running the program and to traffic safety work, and the city named sidewalks, crosswalks and bicycle facilities as examples.
According to BIPD's presentation, a citation would go by mail with an image to the registered owner. The owner could appeal or state that someone else was driving. This is general information drawn from public sources, not legal advice. Anyone who receives a citation should rely on the notice itself and on qualified counsel.
Poulsbo Already Runs a Camera on Viking Avenue
When the council asked for evidence, BIPD looked to its neighbor. One item on the council's list was to "speak to our partners at the City of Poulsbo about lessons learned."
Poulsbo's first camera watches northbound Viking Avenue NW at Fish Park, near Stendahl Court. It is a park-zone camera, and the city lists a $145 fine. The 30-day warning period began Sept. 23, 2024, and citations began after Oct. 22, 2024. Verra Mobility administers the program, and Poulsbo police review each violation before a citation goes out.
The first weeks were busy. By Dec. 9, 2024, Poulsbo Municipal Court figures showed 919 tickets on Viking Avenue and nearly $40,000 in citation revenue, Kitsap Daily News reported. Tickets went to drivers at least 10 mph over the limit, and the court said the calls and payments were adding real staff workload. That count covers only the first seven weeks. No later cumulative total has been published.
Poulsbo has since expanded the program. School-zone warnings at the Poulsbo Elementary entrance on Noll Road began March 12, 2025. A red-light camera at SR 305 and Bond Road began issuing citations Oct. 30, 2025. At the Bainbridge open house, city officials said there had been zero collisions at the Viking Avenue camera since it was installed. Poulsbo has not published a collision report that confirms that figure.
Poulsbo's experience also gives a rough timeline. In March, Fastaia told the council that Poulsbo officials suggested installation takes about six months, and that mailed tickets would arrive about two weeks after a violation.
The Calendar From Here
The city's online survey closes today, Thursday, Oct. 29. It asks how comfortable residents are with automated enforcement and which other safety strategies they prefer. After that, the sequence looks like this:
- Dec. 1, 2026. City Council is expected to receive the survey results and community feedback.
- 2027 at the earliest. No decision on whether to implement a program is expected before then.
- Ordinance and site analysis. The council would need to adopt an ordinance authorizing cameras. Staff would need to analyze each location, weigh equity impacts and show the need for a camera there.
- Installation. Based on Poulsbo's experience, roughly six months.
- Signs. Each camera location must be signed at least 30 days before the camera is turned on.
Even on the fastest schedule, no camera on Miller Road, Sportsman Club Road or Blakely Avenue issues a ticket without a council ordinance, a site-by-site analysis and a month of posted signs first. The city has stated it plainly: "No decision has been made to implement a speed safety camera program." The next public discussion is the council's Dec. 1 meeting, where members will see whether the survey results match what the room at Blakely Elementary said.
Traffic on a home's street is part of daily life there, and it is reasonable to ask how it may change. If you own on one of these corridors or are considering a home near them, Mark Middleton Real Estate can walk you through how road and school-zone patterns show up in a Bainbridge purchase or sale. Request a private consultation.
