Rep. Joe Hogan, R-Penndel, is pictured during a July legislative hearing in Philadelphia.

Pennsyvania already allows cameras to enforce school bus stop arm violations, work zone speeding and, in parts of Philadelphia, school zone speeding.

Rep. Joe Hogan, R-Penndel, wants to add boroughs to that list.

Hogan recently circulated a co-sponsorship memorandum for legislation he is drafting that would allow cameras to be used in boroughs to enforce speed limits.

“In the near future I will be introducing legislation that would authorize automated speed enforcement programs in boroughs within the commonwealth. I believe it is imperative that we continue to increase the safety for motorists, and pedestrians, across the commonwealth,” Hogan wrote in his co-sponsorship memorandum.

A legislature-approved work zone speed camera program on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and on PennDOT highways went into effect earlier this year as part of a five-year pilot project. Mobile cameras and radar systems are mounted on vehicles parked in work zones. State officials said the cameras have reduced the number of speeders driving between 1 and 10 mph over the speed limit by 38% statewide, reduced the number of speeders driving 11 mph or more above the speed limit by 47%, sent a message to motorists with 83% of the violations issued to date being first-time violators, and reduced the number of crashes in work zones where cameras have been deployed anywhere from a 15% to 50%.

Any expansion is likely to come with a fight from the National Motorists Association, one of the groups that opposed the state’s effort to use stop arm cameras on school buses. The organization waged a lengthy public campaign against the cameras.

Other lawmakers in neighboring states share Hogan’s idea. Legislation has been introduced in the New York state Assembly that would allow villages in Nassau and Suffolk counties to place cameras on stop signs in an attempt to slow traffic. Assemblyman Fred Thiele, D-Sag Harbor, introduced the Protect Our Pedestrians Act (A.10169) to create a pilot program that could eventually be expanded statewide. Saddle Rock, a village in Long Island, tried to install stop sign cameras last year as several Long Island villages considered ways to slow traffic in their villages, but it was determined stop sign cameras likely needed state legislative approval since there was no express state authorization to install cameras on stop signs.

“One of the major roles that village government plays is protecting the safety of their residents. Traffic safety is critical to quality of life to many Long Islanders,” Thiele wrote in his legislative justification. “This legislation recognizes that very often villages have noted that many drivers fail to come to a complete stop at stop signs and drive recklessly. This is a tragedy waiting to happen.”