The letters pages of this newspaper occasionally feature spats over photo radar. Typically the squabbles begin with a wail from someone recently nicked for a contribution to the civic coffers by having too heavy a foot on the accelerator. Inevitably this beef draws a response or two making the blazingly obvious point that a person can avoid incurring these fines by not speeding. Public debate would be better served by considering the motives and techniques behind the deployment of the photo radar units.
It may seem prudent and desirable to station them at sites where speeding is prevalent, but a driver keeping an eye open quickly spots that the camera vans repeatedly visit the same locations. The conclusion is irresistible that if such recurring siting is necessary in the interest of suppressing speeding, the technique is clearly not achieving its aim. Or is there a cynical acceptance that a certain amount of speeding will go on and that — in the interests of civic revenue — officialdom might as well milk it?
A pertinent question is whether the speed limits at these locations are set lower than is necessary in the interest of safety, such that many in the motoring public instinctively recognize this and respond by driving at an objectively safe, if illegal, speed. For many years along Edmonton’s St. Albert Trail there was a stretch between 118 Avenue and the Yellowhead Trail overpass where the speed limit dropped from 60 to 50 kilometres per hour, a break in the 60 limit which otherwise prevailed from around 107 Avenue on the Groat Road to 137 Avenue. To my eye, and I have driven this stretch of road almost daily for more than 35 years, it was hard to see the justification for the reduction of speed over this stretch. It was a money pot. Police units were frequently out reeling in speeders. Then came a day when the City of Edmonton raised the limit to 60 km/h. I have not seen any evidence of traffic carnage as a result of this higher limit.
In St. Albert photo radar frequently squats along the stretch of Sir Winston Churchill Avenue in the vicinity of Sir Alexander Mackenzie School to spot westbound speeders and across the street near the Protestant school division offices to catch those heading east. When school is on and the lower limits are in effect, I think regular photo radar coverage is justifiable. But outside of school hours the limit on Churchill could be raised from 50 to 60 km/h over this stretch, and indeed probably over much of the length of the entire route, without ill effect. A similar long-time soft spot for speed enforcement has been the west side of St. Albert Trail in order to nab people speeding up a little ahead of our city’s southern boundary.
The fact that a lot of people are breaking a law is no reason to change it, but repeated infractions might suggest the rationale behind the law should be re-examined. Some mad fools will drive furiously whatever the speed limit. Most people drive safely and if a lot of them are being nabbed for speeding at a given spot, the authorities ought to honestly consider — without regard to the effect on the civic coffers — whether the limit there has been set too low.
David Haas has lived in St. Albert since 1975.
