By Jorge Casuso

August 15, 2024 -- A six week-pilot program videotaped a total of 1,679 parking violations in bicycle lanes along select Santa Monica streets, according to a report to the City Council released Wednesday.

The cameras -- mounted on two parking enforcement vehicles between May 6 and June 19 -- operated on several streets near the Downtown Santa Monica and along Ocean Park Boulevard.

Of the total violations recorded by the system, 276 involved vehicles that either completely or partially blocked the bike lanes, the study found.

These violations "could be seen as causing greater risk to road users, especially bicyclists who might have to leave the bike lane and move into vehicular traffic to avoid illegally parked vehicles," the report said.

The remaining 1,403 violations were noted when two of the vehicle’s wheels were on the white line of the bike lane, according to the report.

Around a quarter of the total violations were committed by 160 repeat offenders, with 14 drivers responsible for four or more incidents.

The biggest offender was a food truck that was captured by the system 13 times, while a freight delivery truck was the most frequent repeat offender when it came to blocking all or part of a bicycle lane.

"The cameras recorded cyclists present in the bike lane a total of 62 times over the pilot period," the report said.

During the pilot, the two parking enforcement vehicles each detected an average of about 5 incidents per vehicle-hour.

Most of the violations -- 432 -- took place on Tuesdays, followed by Sundays, when 276 violations were recorded, according to the report.

The greatest number of violations involving vehicles blocking all or part of a lane -- 55 -- took place on Thursdays.

No warnings or citations were issued during the pilot program, transportation officials said.

The Department of Transportation is expected to recommend that the City Council implement the technology on a broader basis, including issuing citations, staff said.

The pilot program was launched one year after the City embarked on a 45-day pilot program to test the use of AI-equipped license reader cameras on City buses along the route to LAX ("City to Test License Reader Cameras on Bike Lanes," May 2, 2024).

The cameras mounted on two buses captured an average of 7.7 violations per bus per day, according to the data. The City is procuring funding for a permanent program.

The bike lane enforcement effort comes as the City is seeing an increase in fatal and severe injury crashes involving cyclists and pedestrians over each of the past three years ("Rising Number of Pedestrians, Cyclists Killed or Seriously Injured in Santa Monica," August 12, 2024).

Last year, 39 people were severely injured or killed in local traffic accidents, one of them a motorist killed in a car-only crash, according to data compiled by the Department of Transportation.

Of the total, 6 of those severely injured were bicyclists, and one bicyclist was killed.