How close is the nearest license plate camera in Washington, DC?

Half of the points sampled inside Washington are closer to a mapped camera than 0.5 miles, and half are farther: that median is the typical distance. Nine sampled points in ten are within 0.9 miles of one.

• Washington: typical distance0.5 miles
• Median of the 2,395 places measured nationwide0.5 miles
• Washington: nine points in ten are within0.9 miles

Across the 2,395 places measured nationwide, the median typical distance is 0.5 miles. The typical distance in Washington is level with that.

• Within a quarter mile of a mapped camera18% of the area
• Within half a mile of a mapped camera53% of the area

Both figures are shares of the area inside the boundary of Washington: the part that lies within 400 metres (about a quarter mile) and within 800 metres (about half a mile) of a mapped camera, wherever that camera stands. They describe distance to a pin and nothing else. In the median place measured nationwide, 46% of the area inside the boundary lies within half a mile of a mapped camera.

Median gap

450 feet

Middle half of the gaps

150 feet to 0.2 miles

Within 200 feet of another

38 of 103 cameras

The gap is the straight-line distance from each mapped camera in Washington to the nearest other one in Washington. Half of the gaps are shorter than 450 feet, and the middle half run from 150 feet to 0.2 miles. In Washington, 38 of 103 cameras stand within 200 feet (60 metres) of another, which usually means two on one pole or a group at one intersection.

A direction is recorded for 87% of the cameras here (90 of 103 cameras).

The most common recorded direction is south, with 21 cameras. Because 2 cameras carry two directions and are counted once in each, the eight counts add up to 92 directions from 90 cameras. A direction of exactly 0 is treated as not recorded, because that value is often left on a pin nobody set; that leaves out 11 cameras here.

The direction is the compass bearing a mapper noted for the camera, as it stood when they looked.

In Washington, 35 of 103 mapped cameras carry an operator tag, which is 34% of the cameras here.

• Public agency32 cameras
• Private3 cameras
• Camera company0 cameras
• Other0 cameras
• Not recorded68 cameras

The kinds are read from the operator names mappers typed. A name is counted as private only when it plainly belongs to a business, an association or another private owner; a name the rules cannot place is counted as other; and where no operator is recorded the camera is not assumed to be anybody’s. The method page sets out how a name is sorted into a kind.

For every 10,000 residents, Washington has 1.5 mapped cameras. The 2020 Census counted 689,545 residents there. Among the places measured nationwide, the median is 8.1 mapped cameras for every 10,000 residents.

Other places with a mapped camera within 25 miles of Washington, the nearest first. Distances are straight lines between the places’ centre points.

• Mount Rainier, MD3.8 miles northeast, 1 mapped cameraShow Mount Rainier on the map
• Chillum, MD4.7 miles northeast, 1 mapped cameraShow Chillum on the map
• Arlington, VA4.9 miles west, 74 mapped cameras
• Hyattsville, MD5.1 miles northeast, 20 mapped camerasShow Hyattsville on the map
• Hillcrest Heights, MD5.4 miles southeast, 4 mapped camerasShow Hillcrest Heights on the map
• Edmonston, MD5.5 miles northeast, 3 mapped camerasShow Edmonston on the map
• Bladensburg, MD5.5 miles northeast, 1 mapped cameraShow Bladensburg on the map
• Coral Hills, MD5.6 miles southeast, 2 mapped camerasShow Coral Hills on the map
• Alexandria, VA7 miles southwest, 75 mapped cameras
• Severn, MD23.5 miles northeast, 47 mapped cameras

The distance and area figures for Washington come from 4,420 sample points, laid 200 metres apart across the area inside its boundary.

Each distance is a straight line from a sample point to the nearest mapped camera of any make, and that camera can stand outside the boundary. The counts are floors: a camera nobody has added to OpenStreetMap is not on this page, and a pin can be out of date.

• How every figure is measured
• Report a wrong pin