Are St. Albert drivers slowing down? Maybe. The number of photo enforcement tickets issued – and the revenue collected – has been on a downward trend, but the city's manager of policing services says there are more factors to consider when taking a look at the statistics.
Are St. Albert drivers slowing down?
Maybe.
The number of photo enforcement tickets issued – and the revenue collected – has been on a downward trend, but the city's manager of policing services says there are more factors to consider when taking a look at the statistics.
“You would like to think that is because people are slowing down,” said Aaron Giesbrecht.
In 2011, 25,315 photo enforcement tickets were issued. In 2012, that went up to 30,612, but in 2013 decreased to 21,788. As of the end of the city's second fiscal quarter – the end of June – 9,377 tickets had been issued in 2014.
Photo enforcement revenues – which include speed on green and red light cameras – have been trending down, with the city raking in $2.4-million in 2012, $1.925 million in 2013 and $795,800 in 2014 as of June 30.
But Giesbrecht pointed out revenues only include fines actually paid. And if someone fought their ticket in court, revenue received in 2014 could very well be from a 2012 ticket.
While it might be nice to interpret the statistics as saying people are slowing down, Giesbrecht said more analysis would be needed before drawing that conclusion.
For instance, they've been short a traffic enforcement municipal officer for many months, which would contribute to fewer tickets being issued.
Giesbrecht's department also doesn't have standard enforcement hours.
“You got to remember that even the number of tickets issued varies month to month, year to year,” he said, noting the hours will change depending on the resources available.
Anecdotally, Giesbrecht said, drivers are slowing down. He said he likes to hear from officers that have been working in St. Albert for years about how 10 years ago, they could go to a corner and issue 15 tickets, and now, when they go to the same corner, they can only issue five.
“We're hearing that all over the place,” he said.
The majority of the money collected from photo enforcement goes to offset policing costs in St. Albert, Giesbrecht said
For revenues collected from the speed on green cameras, half goes into a reserve that helps fund initiatives like Safe Journeys to School.
Giesbrecht acknowledged that photo enforcement does make money, but the desired outcome isn't to increase revenue.
“When you look at fine revenue overall, does it even come close to paying for all the policing costs? Absolutely not,” he said.
Photo enforcement is not used as a cash cow, he said, but is one of the tools used to help with traffic safety in St. Albert.
He noted when the traffic section is looking for intersections to target for enforcement, they want the data about which one has the most collisions or other statistics.
“They don't call up and say ‘How much revenue are we bringing in? Are we low?'” he said.
Statistics as of June 30 show a downward trend in injury-collisions per capita, which the city's Statracker website suggests could be due to enforcement and the left-hand turn changes.
Studies have shown that photo enforcement does increase safety, Giesbrecht said, sending along a copy of a study from the Journal of Transport Economics and Policy that looked at speed cameras in Edmonton.
“All indications are saying photo enforcement is a positive program, it does have a general deterrent on overall speed and collisions,” Giesbrecht said. “When you put all those things together, it makes sense to have the program.”
