Everything You Need To Know About Niceville’s School Zone Cameras

In Brief:

📸 Speed cameras near Niceville schools operate from 6:30 AM to 2:50 PM, ticketing drivers 11+ mph over posted limits.
🚦 Speed thresholds vary depending on whether school zone lights are flashing or normal speed limits apply.
🏫 Cameras monitor Old Coastal/Palm, Partin Drive, and SR 85 near local schools, in effect only on school days.

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Niceville City Manager David Deitch attempted to clear up confusion on social media about the speed cameras near Niceville-area schools and their hours of operation during the city’s regular council meeting on August 12.

Deitch noted that the speed cameras, which were deployed at the end of the last school year, had been turned back on for the first day of school and would ticket people for speeding during the length of the school day.

“From 6:30 AM to 2:50 PM they are on all day long,” Deitch explained, “so if you are driving 11 miles an hour or more over whatever speed limit is applicable, at the time you are passing through those school zones, you will get a picture of yourself and [a] $100 fine in the mail.”

However, the speed at which you would get a ticket does still depend on the time of day. During commute times for students, which the school zone lights are flashing and the speed limit is 15 miles per hour on Old Coastal Road for example, drivers going 26 or more miles per hour will receive a ticket courtesy of the new cameras and the city.

But during the school day when school zone lights are not flashing and the speed limit is 25 on Old Coastal Road (Palm), drivers going 36 miles per hour or more will receive a ticket as well.

Councilman Heath Rominger asked Deitch why the speed limit was enforced via camera the entire school day instead of just school start and end times. Speed limits are not enforced by cameras on school holidays and weekends.

“That’s the way the state law reads,” Deitch said to Rominger as an explanation for the camera’s middle-of-the-day ticketing.

There are three roads monitored by cameras in school zones within the city limits. The first is Old Coastal Road/Palm Boulevard (on the road that separates Niceville High School and Ruckel Middle School from Pounders Hawaiian Grill, the Post Office, and Brozinni’s Pizzeria.

The second road is Partin Drive, and the third is State Route 85 outside of Edge Elementary.

School Zone Speeds for those roads are the following and are enforced from 30 minutes before school starts until 30 minutes after school starts, and then again in the exact measurements for school dismissal.

School Zone Flashing Lights Speed Limit

🚘 Old Coastal/Palm: 15 Miles Per Hour

🚙 Partin Drive: 20 Miles Per Hour

🛻 SR 85: 20 Miles Per Hour

Normal Speed Limit

🚘 Old Coastal/Palm: 25 Miles Per Hour

🚙 Partin Drive: 35 Miles Per Hour

🛻 SR 85: 35 Miles Per Hour