Malibu expects its speed cameras on Pacific Coast Highway to begin issuing warning notices in late September 2026, and real citations — civil penalties of $50 to $500 — in late November 2026, after the 60-day warning period its law requires. The City says construction is nearing completion at five sites along PCH, and that the system records a vehicle only when it is travelling at least 11 mph over the posted limit. These are civil penalties: in the City’s words, “No license points or insurance penalties will apply.”
The timeline, in the City’s own words
On August 18, 2026 the City announced it was “nearing completion of construction” and launching a public education and outreach phase. Its published schedule then reads: “Late September 2026: A 60-day warning period begins. Motorists who exceed the threshold will receive warnings only,” followed by “Late November 2026: Enforcement begins, with qualifying violations resulting in civil penalties.” Those are the City’s expected dates, not announced start dates — we will update this page when the City says the warning period has actually begun.
Even after enforcement starts, the law keeps one warning in reserve: a vehicle’s first violation at 11 to 15 mph over the limit must be a warning notice rather than a fine, whenever it happens. That rule is written into the Vehicle Code article SB 1297 created.
Where the five cameras are
The City’s adopted Impact Report, dated June 9, 2025, proposes five camera sites, each named as a PCH intersection: Decker Road, Morning View Drive, Latigo Canyon Road, Carbon Beach Terrace and Tuna Canyon Road — spaced four to five miles apart along the 21-mile stretch of PCH that runs through the city. The report is explicit that exact placement is “subject to additional field observations and construction recommendations.”
The City has not published coordinates. Its adopted Use Policy commits it to listing the enforced road segments on its programme website once they are final. Until then, our Malibu map shows the five named intersections as approximate positions, marked as approximate on the map and on every camera page.
Drivers will be told before any camera reads their speed: the law requires “Photo Enforced” signs, together with the posted speed limit, no more than 500 feet before each system, alongside flashing-beacon speed limit signs and speed feedback signs — placed where Caltrans determines, after consulting the California Highway Patrol.
What a ticket will cost
The penalty schedule is set by the statute: $50 for driving 11 to 15 mph over the posted limit, $100 for 16 to 25 over, $200 for 26 or more over, and $500 at 100 mph or more. The amounts are identical, word for word, to the schedule in AB 645 — a ticket costs the same on PCH as it does in Los Angeles or San Francisco.
These are civil penalties, not moving violations, so they add no points to a licence. The law requires relief for lower-income drivers — including a diversion programme for indigent recipients — and sets a $25 filing fee for taking an appeal of a notice to court.
Why Malibu’s cameras run under their own law
Malibu is not part of AB 645, the six-city pilot that covers Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San José, Glendale and Long Beach. Its cameras were authorised by SB 1297, a bill written for exactly one city and one road: signed September 27, 2024, in effect since January 1, 2025, it added a separate article to the Vehicle Code allowing up to five speed safety systems on Pacific Coast Highway, operated by the City, and sunsetting on January 1, 2032 — the same end date as the pilot.
The bill attaches conditions unique to Malibu. The City must keep funding the extra California Highway Patrol enforcement on PCH — the cameras add to patrols rather than replacing them — and any citation revenue left after programme costs goes, through an agreement with Caltrans, to traffic-calming measures on PCH in Malibu. The reason one road got its own statute is in the numbers the bill’s author published: 134 crashes causing death or serious injury on Malibu’s 21 miles of PCH between 2019 and 2023, and a local emergency declared by the City on November 13, 2023. The Governor’s office, announcing the signing, put it at “over 60 lives since 2010.”
What happens next
The City says it will report the programme’s performance to its Public Safety Commission and the public regularly. Two things to watch: the announcement that the warning period has actually started, and the publication of the final enforced road segments, which the Use Policy promises. We track both, and each camera’s status on our Malibu pages will change the day the City’s does.