Municipalities push back against suggestion photo radar is a cash cow

Photo radar speeding enforcement has turned into a municipal cash cow, says the province. A spokesperson for Alberta's urban municipalities says it's an essential and effective way of making communities safer.

Those two starkly different perspectives on new provincial guidelines for the use of photo radar announced Thursday erupted into a day full of competing versions of reality Friday.

"Keeping our communities safe is of the utmost importance, and we welcome the government's offer of partnership in making our traffic safety programs more clear and effective. But for that partnership to work, they need to stop the finger-pointing," said Barry Morishita, president of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA), in a release issued late Friday afternoon.

"Our municipalities are proud to have taken the lead in reducing traffic fatalities by more than five per cent, which can be directly attributed to effective and diligent photo radar practices," said Morishita.

That perspective clashed with the one presented Friday by Brian Mason, Alberta's transportation minister, who insisted some municipalities have "quite frankly" abused photo radar for financial gain.

I'm sorry I hurt his feelings, but quite frankly, in some cases, photo radar has been abused in order to generate revenue.- Brian Mason, Transportation Minister

When Mason discovered that his choice of words were not warmly received by Calgary Police Service traffic unit Sgt. Joerg Gottschling, who spoke to David Gray Friday on the Calgary Eyeopener, he stuck to his rhetorical guns.

"I'm sorry I hurt his feelings, but quite frankly, in some cases, photo radar has been abused in order to generate revenue," Mason said Friday on Alberta at Noon. "And there's been a distortion in its deployment, and some municipalities are worse than others."

The minister said the analysis done for an independent review, posted online, found photo radar contributed to a small improvement, about 1.4 per cent to the overall decline of traffic collisions. In terms of severe, fatal accidents, the tool contributed to a 5.3 per cent reduction, the report said.

Gottschling said he was surprised to hear Mason's choice of words Thursday at an announcement about new guidelines for how photo radar can be used. 

The cameras are set up in municipalities across Alberta, and the province has said each must be proven to reduce collisions, or the camera must be removed within one year. The minister said he wanted to prevent the cameras from being used as "a cash cow."

"I felt it a little unfair to come out and, you know, use derogatory terminology and suggest that municipalities are abusing this," Gottschling told the Calgary Eyeopener on Friday.

"Only shortly before that, we were basically cordially told these will be the changes and everybody agreed that they were completely reasonable."

He said he hoped the province would alert Calgary police if a study showed any potential abuse.

System could be improved

Mason said an independent review of photo radar found Calgary was "pretty good" at using the tool for safety. The review, released in 2018, found all municipalities complied with guidelines.

Mason said there were signs, however, that the system could be improved.

Mason said he's trying to improve those numbers — and to do so, he has issued new guidelines.

One of the directions is that municipalities must prove all locations have seen safety improvements due to photo radar use. If they haven't in one year, the radar must be removed.

Mason would not say which municipalities have been identified as strategically placing radar to ticket as many people as possible, rather than in locations where tickets would improve safety.

'We're going to make them adjust'

He did, however, note the report found that in 2016-17, Edmonton raised more than $50.8 million from 272 locations, while Calgary raised $38.1 million from 950 locations.

"Edmonton… has quite a bit fewer locations than Calgary does. I think people can draw their own conclusions," Mason said.

"But the conclusion that I've drawn overall is that some municipalities are deploying photo radar to generate revenue rather than for safety reasons — and we're going to make them adjust."

Transparent a priority

Morishita countered that all Alberta municipalities are audited, and that reports from 2013-14 and 2016-17 showed that all Alberta municipalities were compliant with current guidelines.

"Transparency to our residents on photo radar practice in our communities has, is, and will always be a priority," adds Morishita. "And while our municipalities strive to be transparent in applying the automated traffic enforcement tools, we also require more timely traffic data from the government, which hasn't always been the case." 

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson has said the city uses photo radar transparently and responsibly, and uses funds for traffic safety initiatives.

In particular, Mason said he wants to close "one big loophole" in the old guidelines. Any four-lane or high-speed road was eligible for photo radar, without a requirement to show a history of accidents.

"That's where a lot of this revenue generation comes from, on long straightaways where there might not be a serious safety issue but there is speeding," he said.

Speeding on Deerfoot, Stoney Trail

Gottschling said the province assured him photo radar could stay on the busy Deerfoot Trail and Stoney Trail, which he said have a history of speeding and would be dangerous locations for police to conduct traffic stops in person.

He said cameras on those stretches might not be at a collision hot spot but their tickets would encourage regular users of those roads to drive safely.

Mason said he wouldn't want to tell cities they must install radar at all intersections — "that's a pretty expensive 'must'" — but suggested strategic intersection monitoring could help.

The province found most serious collisions happen at intersections, which are not popular places for photo radar.