Chicago Speed Camera Ticketing Begins Wednesday On City's Northwest Side

Leadfoots of the city, beware.

Beginning at 6 a.m. Wednesday, speed cameras at Gompers Park began issuing tickets for speeders, according to CBS Chicago.

The cameras have been installed at 4100 W. Foster Ave. and 5100 N. Pulaski Road since August but have, until now, only issued warnings, the Expired Meter notes. They will be in effect during the hours the park is open -- from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. and speed violators will still receive just one more warning before being fined.

Initially, $35 tickets will only be automatically issued to any drivers caught going more than 10 mph over the speed limit -- but before long, anyone caught going 6-10 mph over the limit should expect to receive a $35 ticket in the mail and drivers clocked at 11 mph or more will be fined $100.

Beyond Wednesday, speed cameras at McKinley Park, Marquette Park and Garfield Park are already in the midst of their 30-day warning period and tickets will soon be issued at those sites, ABC Chicago notes. Forty-six additional sites will also see cameras installed citywide in the months ahead.

The start of fines at Gompers Park comes just days on the heels of news, first reported by WBEZ last week, that the speed cameras appear poised to bring in far more revenue than the city has projected.

Nine speed cameras at the four parks where they are already installed caught 233,886 speeders between Aug. 26 and Oct. 9 alone. Had the cameras been issuing tickets, as they soon will be, they would have generated almost $13.9 million in citations over that month and a half alone.

The city noted, however, that the number of violators dropped dramatically -- by over 40 percent in just two weeks-- during the warning period, in line with the city's expectation for "behavior to change dramatically" as a result of the cameras being in place, the Chicago Tribune reports.