HANNAFORD: An end to speed-trap fishing holes, the right thing done at last

They deny it, of course. But police departments have been setting quotas for speeding tickets for a long time. The municipality wants the money and ‘we know people are speeding. So no sympathy, if they don’t want to pay, they shouldn’t speed. Fair game, go get ’em.’So went the logic.That is not how drivers see it of course. When conditions are good and the traffic flow is faster than an arbitrarily set speed limit, the people taking up the two right-hand lanes with cruise control set to 100 kph, look a bit of a hazard themselves.And therefore, while we concede that photo-radar can be a useful tool to reduce dangerous driving, we also applaud the Alberta government’s order Thursday that ‘fishing hole’ enforcement be banished from the Calgary and Edmonton ring roads.A fishing hole, as the name suggests, is a place where catching something — fish or speeders — is just too easy. Transition zones for example, where the driver enters a lower limit area. Or a transition zone that is also downhill.Or just a place on a briskly moving three-lane highway where the copper parks a black car in the shadow of a bridge and… well, most of us have fallen for that one. Maybe it’s the sporting instinct that the opening of hunting season awakens in so many of us, but we really feel it shouldn’t be that easy.And as the critics of fishing holes say, of course it looks more like raising revenue, than traffic safety. It’s not as if anybody slows down after they’ve been photo-tagged, is it? They don’t even know until the ticket arrives in the mail three weeks later.Ah yes, the money. As the Western Standard report reveals, municipalities like it. We quoted Edmonton councilor Karen Principe that photo radar was about keeping people safe, not the money.Perhaps for her, it is.However, 15% of the total fines levied is given to Victim Services, 16.67% (one sixth) goes to the Government of Alberta, and the other two thirds goes to the city. For 2022/23, that’s two thirds of $171 million.Here’s an alternative suggestion for Alberta municipalities. Don’t lust for traffic ticket revenue. Do what your constituents do: cut spending. Thursday’s announcement from Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen stopped short of dumping photo radar altogether. Instead, photo radar sites would be repositioned to improve pedestrian safety in school, playground and construction zones.Fair enough. That's a good use.Dreeshen also admitted that with nearly 2,400 pieces of equipment, Alberta was “an anomaly” compared to other provinces.Quite so. There are not many non-partisan issues in Alberta. This however does appear to be one.Indeed, two years ago, the NDP delivered some apparently genuine anti-photo radar rhetoric, accusing then-premier Kenney of “hammering household budgets with costly photo radar tickets despite a lack of evidence that they will contribute to traffic safety.”The latter was a reference to an independent third-party 2018 report that found Alberta was indeed an anomaly among the provinces for the number of photo radar units it deploys, but that the reduction in accidents was relatively small compared to other jurisdictions that didn’t use it.In other words, this is just a good decision.So was the recent instruction to make vehicles equipped with photo radar highly visible. So, if you see a black SUV tricked out with dayglo green stripes and a big sign on the tailgate saying ‘Drive safe,’ it’s photo radar and you’re heading into a sensitive area.That means they’re less interested in your money, than in you not speeding through a school zone.That’s what photo radar is for. And when used that way, it’s hard to object.

HANNAFORD: An end to speed-trap fishing holes, the right thing done at last

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