If you’ve got a lead foot behind the wheel, you’ll want to pay attention: Minnesota has given the green light to speed cameras, and they could start snapping photos of speeding drivers in the North Star State later this summer.
Minnesota has never had automated speed enforcement systems
There are just some things that other states have that we’ve never had here in Minnesota. Like tolls on highways and interstates (though the Minnesota Department of Transportation apparently DID once consider such a thing a few years ago.) Or those automated traffic cameras that catch you running a red light or speeding and take a picture, allowing the state to then mail you a ticket.
Have you ever gotten a ticket from an automated camera? We once got a bill in the mail after we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge out in San Francisco. California took out the toll booths on that stretch of Highway-101 (to keep traffic flowing, I’m guessing) and now simply takes a picture of your license plate as you drive by and then mails you a bill that gives you a certain amount of time to pay online– or they then mail you a ticket, too.
But automated speed cameras *are* coming to Minnesota– and soon
Thanks to a bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature in 2024 (that would be Minnesota Statute 169.147 in case you’re curious), a speed camera pilot program was legalized here in the Bold North. And now, we’re just weeks away from those automated cameras being installed and ready to nab unsuspecting speeders!
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has the details:…