By Brianna Gurciullo, Staff Writer
Motorists travel on Interstate 84 east, left, with the Exit 48A and 48B off-ramps, center, in Hartford, Conn., on Friday, November 14, 2025. Connecticut could allow a pilot program for speed cameras on highways under a new bill before the state legislature.
The General Assembly’s Transportation Committee approved more than a dozen bills, taking aim at issues related to speeding, distracted driving, student drivers, microtransit services, handicap parking placards, homeless encampments and more.
One bill that the committee advanced in a unanimous vote Monday would allow the state Department of Transportation to operate speed cameras on major highways as part of a pilot program, as long as it works with the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection and picks the locations based on a history of excessive speeding and fatal or serious traffic crashes.
Under the bill, if a camera captures a car traveling 15 mph or more over the speed limit, the owner would receive a $75 ticket for a first violation and tickets of up to $200 for additional violations.
DOT is already using speed cameras in highway work zones following a similar pilot program and also approves plans by municipalities to use the technology.
Though he voted in favor of the bill, the top Senate Republican on the committee, state Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, said he had concerns about civil liberties and that municipal officials wouldn’t have a say in the placement of speed cameras on highways that run through their cities and towns. But the committee co-chair, state Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, defended the proposed pilot program.
“This is about safety,” Cohen said. “We have too many people speeding on our highways, recklessly driving, taking other people’s lives as a result of that, and something needs to be done.”
The same bill would end a prohibition on the procurement of diesel transit buses by DOT, increase the penalty for those who violate the governor’s weather-related travel bans and repeal an exemption for the Port Eastside development in East Hartford from a traffic safety review process.