That there’s criticism of speed cameras in the District isn’t new. And with new cameras catching speeders across the city, new complaints are coming quick.

Late last year the District announced it was installing 19 new speed cameras, increasing the number of fixed and non-fixed cameras throughout the city. All told, the speed cameras and 50 red light cameras were responsible for over 547,000 tickets worth some $51 million in revenue in 2010.

Much as older cameras have, the new speed cameras have attracted criticism. At the end of January, Chef Geoff Tracy of Chef Geoff’s fame loudly complained of a new speed camera on Foxhall Road and even shelled out $1,200 to hire a sign spinner to warn drivers that it was there. (D.C. police were nonplussed by his protest, and seemed encouraged that it would slow drivers down.) Today, a Ward 7 D.C. Council candidate and prominent pastor announced that they would protest a new speeding camera that they say is hitting the elderly the hardest.

Also today, WMAL 105.9 is running a story on one of its own former producers who has been nailed for 11 speeding violations on Porter Street NW, including four warnings that arrived after a 30-day grace period had ended. Ann Wog, a Cleveland Park resident, questions the safety value of the camera, noting that there are no pedestrian crossings on Porter Street as it crosses Rock Creek Park from Cleveland Park to Mt. Pleasant. WMAL’s report found that the offending camera was responsible for 13,000 speeding vehicles tickets over 11 weeks, or 170 a day. As for the camera that has become the focus of Tracy’s ire, it produced some 31,000 tickets over two months, which could be worth $1.4 million for the city.

As usual, the debate has set AAA and many drivers against D.C. police. The former claim that the cameras are all about revenue and nothing about safety, while the latter point out that they have helped lower the number of vehicular fatalities in recent years.

Now, a personal aside. Upon reading WMAL’s story, I froze. I often use Porter Street to get across the park, and I had no idea a speed camera had been installed there. I checked online, and yes, I was hit with a speeding ticket on January 19. The camera is surprisingly discrete, unlike older cameras that are well-marked. Still, I see both sides of the debate. Drivers on Porter Street often speed, and they probably shouldn’t. That being said, it’s true that it is lightly used by pedestrian or cyclists, and there aren’t any cross streets.

That leads to a question made by an AAA spokesperson in the WMAL article — should speed cameras be more obviously marked than they currently are? And beyond that, a point that seems obvious — once the cameras are installed and the 30-day grace period starts, warnings should be mailed out quickly enough so that drivers know that they’re speeding past a new camera.

Other than that, are these complaints merely more of the same complaints we’ve heard over the years? Seems like it.