Regina faces a speeding 'epidemic' even with photo radar, says police officer

Like it or not, photo radar is here to stay in Saskatchewan. 

SGI announced Monday the pilot, which ran from March 2015 to March 2017, was successful. It studied the two-years worth of statistics and found, on average, speeding was reduced. So too were collisions and injuries in areas where photo radar was enforced.

As a result, the province is making photo radar enforcement permanent and is leaving the door open for possible expansions. 

"I'd be happier if we didn't have to issue any speeding tickets, but you know people do speed," Joe Hargrave, minister responsible for SGI, said Monday. 

Photo radar could be expanded

Currently, photo radar is enforced on five major roads, including Regina's Ring Road and Saskatoon's Circle Drive. Some highways also feature the speed tracking technology. Photo radar can also found in school zones in Saskatoon, Regina and Moose Jaw. 

Hargrave said Monday a special traffic safety committee will be struck and will comprised of representatives from police, SGI as well as rural and urban officials. 

He explained the committee will hear requests from municipalities who are requesting photo radar and will discuss other measures that could make their roads safer, such as building speed bumps.

Any expansion of the photo radar program will be paid for using the money raised through photo radar tickets, Hargave said. 

Expert says photo radar works

Emanuele Saachi, an assistant professor in the department of engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, said the potential severity of a crash increases as someone's speed does. 

He said there is strong evidence that photo radar systems can reduce injuries from collisions by 25 per cent and property damages from crashes by 15 per cent.

Safer for police officers: Minister responsible for SGI

Hargave said photo radar enforcement is safer for police officers. 

Cst. Curtis Warnar is one of 12 officers in Regina police's traffic unit and said he's seen both positive and negative consequences of photo radar. 

On the plus side, people are driving along Ring Road are driving slower, but on the negative side, he said more and more people are driving 20 to 30 kilometres below the posted speed limit to avoid a ticket, which is as dangerous as speeding.

'Speeding epidemic'

Warnar said expanding photo radar couldn't hurt, but police are seeing people breaking traffic laws across the city. 

"Between the calls that we get from the public and the pleas we get on social media for people asking us to set up radar, I think we have a speeding epidemic within the City of Regina," he said. 

"We have photo radar and we have all these other mechanisms to slow people down and we're still issuing thousands of speeding tickets a year."

SGI's report on photo radar noted a lower degree of compliance for drivers in school zones as compared to the other locations. 

Less compliance in school zones: report

Warnar said simply some people do not pay attention to school zones and in Regina, some are located next to high traffic roadways and drivers do not adjust their behaviour. 

He noted that when it comes to changing driver behaviour, he believes an officer writing a traffic ticket can have more of an impact than someone receiving a letter in the mail weeks afterwards, which is how photo radar tickets are issued.

Fines will pay for new traffic safety measures

Over the two-year pilot, more than 115, 000 photo radar speeding tickets were issued. 

From March 2015 to February 2017, the province posted a total revenue of $10 million from photo radar —​with a net revenue of $5 million. The province says starting January 1, 2019, 75 per cent of fines issued on highway locations will be saved in a traffic safety fund, while 25 per cent will be transferred to the provincial general revenue fund. 

For municipalities, 25 per cent of ticket revenue will be collected by the province while the remainder will be spilt between the province and municipality to fund new traffic safety measures. 

If and when new cameras are installed, clear signage will also be in place. There will also be a grace period where warnings are given out instead of tickets.

Areas of the province which were clearly marked as photo speed enforcement areas saw an average of 28 fewer collisions resulting in death or injury per year, which translates to about 40 fewer injuries during the same time frame.

Twenty-two people died and another 579 were injured due to speed-related collisions in 2016, SGI said in a news release. That decreased to 11 speed-related deaths in 2017, but the number of injuries increased to 582. 

Collisions resulting in injury or death also decreased by about seven incidents per year in school zones as well, which SGI said results in about 10 fewer injuries.