Alberta intends to end 'cash cow' use of photo radar

Many motorists know you can get in trouble for traffic violations even if police aren’t around.

And those who don’t know can sometimes learn the hard way. Tickets issued due to automated speed enforcement, or photo radar, can run offenders hundreds of dollars in fines, funds that are collected by municipalities and provinces.

The NDP government in Alberta is trying to change that in cases where tickets are more about boosting public coffers than addressing safety concerns, according to Transportation Minister Brian Mason.

“I think in some cases in the province of Alberta, photo radar has been a cash cow and it’s my intention that we are going to humanely put the cash cow down,” the minister told reporters Thursday.

“Our goal is to eliminate photo radar as a tool for revenue generation,” Mason added in a news release.

Photo radar works by installing cameras in select areas and allowing them to snap photos of vehicles and their licence plates when traffic laws are violated. Examples include driving through a red light, not stopping before making a right turn at a red light, and driving above the speed limit.

The existing rules for photo radar in Alberta have been in effect since 2014. In 2017, the provincial government launched a review of photo radar, which is currently in place in 27 municipalities.

Mason said photo radar is not being optimized to improve safety outcomes on Alberta’s highways and roads. In locations where traffic safety is not being improved by photo radar, the province intends to ask municipalities to get rid of them.

“Some would say that photo radar should be outright banned,” Mason said. “I don’t think that the data that we do have, the limited data that we do have, and in the information in the report, supports that conclusion.”

According to statistics provided by the province, a third-party review found that over a 10-year period the program led to a 1.4 per cent decrease in collision rates and a 5.3 per cent reduction in the proportion of fatal collisions.

“Photo radar operations must contribute to significant traffic safety outcomes, like reducing collisions and saving lives,” Mason said in a statement. “We are updating the provincial photo radar guidelines to provide the direction and clarity that municipalities and police agencies need in order to focus on safety.”

The province says there are changes coming to photo radar programs. These include clarified roles and responsibilities, the need for evidence showing they boost safety, and the requirement for photo radar locations to be made available to the public.

Municipalities will also be required to ban programs in transition zones where speed limits change and on high-speed multi-lane roadways, with exceptions. The province wants to see municipalities provide annual reports and evaluations to prove that these programs are being used to promote safety, and not merely as a source of revenue.

There’s photo radar in other provinces, as well, including Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba.

In 2017, the Ontario government amended the Highway Traffic Act to allow municipalities to install photo radar systems in school zones. Michael Harris, a Progressive Conservative MPP and transportation critic at the time, told CBC News the plan to allow photo radar was a “cash grab.” With the PCs now in power, no changes have been made to photo radar in the province.

Last year, the government in British Columbia said they wanted to target high-speed drivers in an attempt to “save lives” by “upgrading the existing red-light camera program to identify and ticket the fastest vehicles.” The B.C. photo radar program was originally scrapped in 2001. While the B.C. government denies this new program is photo radar, they do mention “activating Intersection Safety Camera (ISC) cameras for speed enforcement.”

“Research shows this technology reduces speeding, as well as the number and severity of crashes involving speed,” the B.C. government said in a March 2018 news release.