Recently, I received one of those unwelcome letters in the mail from the photo radar people. The City of St. Albert set a photo radar trap right at the very outskirts of St. Albert on Bellerose Drive. They pointed the camera towards Sturgeon County to catch me accelerating in the last 90 meters inside St Albert – just before the transition to a 70 km limit in Sturgeon County.
So that caused me to spend a little time examining the use and abuse of photo radar. Last year, Alberta Transportation carried out an independent review. Here are highlights from the report:
- The report notes there are many studies that demonstrate a positive link between photo radar and improved driver behaviour.
- Alberta has the highest per capita use of photo radar in Canada. More than three times that of any other province.
- A statistical analysis of photo radar in Alberta concludes it was responsible for just a 1.4 per cent reduction in overall collisions and a five per cent reduction in severe collisions.
So how much enforcement is enough? The study results are murky: The study could not find a statistical relationship between collision rates and the reasons municipalities give for photo radar placement. And even though Alberta uses far more units, collision rates are decreasing only at about the same rates as other jurisdictions.
About $7 million in photo radar fines are levied annually in St Albert. In 2016, St. Albert's take was roughly $4.3 million or $67 per capita. It had 165 camera locations. By comparison, Edmonton collects $54 per capita from 370 locations. St. Albert’s speed traps operated for almost 300,000 hours annually. By comparison, Strathcona County hours of operation are around half that amount.
The City of St. Albert lists 12 criteria for selecting photo radar sites. Frankly, the criteria seem so broad that the traps can be set up just about anywhere.
This is not to suggest that photo radar doesn’t have it place. But public opinion about the value of these devices is evenly split according to the research.
Has St. Albert, like many other municipalities in Alberta, gone overboard with photo radar? The province said it intends to ban photo radar in transition zones between different speed limits (such as the trap that caught me). Yet St. Albert hasn’t updated its practises in line with the province’s new announcements. Maybe it is time for the City to reassess the role and placement of these devices.
Rick Sloan, St. Albert
