San Francisco Has Issued 122,000 Speed Camera Tickets. Here Is How to Fight Yours.

San Francisco was the architect of California's speed camera program. The city drafted Assembly Bill 645 and was the first to go live with automated speed enforcement. As of 2026, SF has 33 cameras installed across the city.

In 2024, the first year of operation, San Francisco issued more than 26,000 speed camera tickets. In 2025, that number exploded to over 122,000. That is 122,000 people who received a notice of violation in the mail. The overwhelming majority simply paid the fine. But you do not have to.

San Francisco's Unique Advantage for Contesting

San Francisco is one of the few counties that currently offers Online Trial by Declaration through the courts' MyCitations portal. If you received a speed camera ticket in SF, you can contest it entirely online — no mailing, no courthouse visit. You submit your written declaration through MyCitations, upload supporting evidence, and wait for the judge's decision by email.

Why So Many People Are Getting Ticketed

The 122,000 figure in 2025 represents a nearly five-fold increase from the previous year. That growth is partly explained by cameras becoming fully operational after initial grace periods ended, and partly by the fact that many SF drivers haven't adjusted their behavior.

San Francisco's 33 cameras are distributed across the city in locations selected based on crash data, speeding patterns, and school zone proximity — from the Richmond and Sunset districts to the Mission, South of Market, and Bayview. The volume of citations is only going to grow.

How to Fight Your SF Speed Camera Ticket

TicketClear prepares your declaration based on your specific citation details. Once ready, you sign it and upload it through the MyCitations portal. The whole process from start to finish can be completed in under an hour.

The defense strategies for SF speed camera tickets are the same as other cities: signage compliance, camera calibration, driver identity, plate image quality, and grace period violations. Given that 122,000 tickets were issued in a single year, it is reasonable to assume not every citation was perfectly processed. Contesting gives you the opportunity to surface those errors.

Do Not Just Pay It

A $50 fine for going 11 to 15 over does not feel like a crisis. But that is exactly why so many people pay without thinking. Contesting costs $49.99 with TicketClear. If you win, you save the fine and your record stays clean. If you lose, you owe what you already owed. In a city issuing six figures worth of these citations per year, a meaningful percentage can be successfully contested.

Got an SF speed camera ticket? Start your contest →