A new speed on green, red light traffic enforcement camera was installed last week and was due to come online this week.
The southbound lanes of St. Albert Trail at the intersection of Boudreau Road/Giroux Road were installed last week. A camera watching over the northbound lanes was put in last summer, but the southbound camera had to be delayed due to construction.
“Some statistics that we do have is it has made a difference in our community. Our traffic injury collisions are fairly level. So even with the community increasing and vehicle traffic increasing in St. Albert, our injury collisions are fairly static … so per population, we’re actually decreasing,” said Aaron Giesbrecht, manager of policing services for St. Albert.
The cameras at Boudreau/Giroux are the third set of cameras installed along St. Albert Trail. The other two sets are at the Hebert Road/Gervais Road and the Bellerose Drive/McKenney Avenue intersections along the trail.
Giesbrecht said the intersections are picked because of their high collision rate – of which the Boudreau/Giroux was the highest in 2011. There were five injury related collisions and 28 property collisions there in 2011, for a total of 33. When a weighted frequency was applied to collision totals from 2006 to 2011, the intersection was still on top.
“It was the number one intersection for collisions,” he said.
The cameras going in at Boudreau/Giroux cost $50,625 each, according to a news release from July 2012. Giesbrecht explained the money comes from the Traffic Safety Reserve Fund, and 50 per cent of all the ticket revenue from the speed on green, red light cameras goes into the fund to pay for traffic safety initiatives. He estimated the fund currently has between $400,000-$500,000.
The cameras, or intersection safety devices, have made a difference, Giesbrecht said.
“Our speed statistics that we get from these devices actually shows that the percentage of vehicles speeding through these areas have significantly reduced over time,” he said.
