Alberta transportation minister Devin Dreeshen is defending himself against accusations that a move to ban photo radar enforcement on provincial highways next spring will put lives at risk.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Photo radar – or automated traffic enforcement, if you prefer the more technical term – works.
Where speed cameras are installed and violators face the risk of fines, the number of drivers speeding drops by 20 to 60 per cent; fatal and serious injuries in collisions that occur in monitored areas fall by 10 to 40 per cent, and extreme speeding (more than 40 kilometres an hour over the posted limit) plummets 66 to 90 per cent. That’s what the research shows.
Yet, last week, there was Devin Dreeshen, Alberta’s Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, dressed in a BBQ apron, to announce that the province was rolling back photo radar because it’s a “cash cow.”
As of April 1, 2025, there will no longer be robotic speed traps on Alberta’s highways. Photo radar will only be allowed near playgrounds, school zones, construction sites, and some high-risk areas. Municipalities will still be allowed to use red-light cameras, but they will not be allowed to target speeding through green lights.
The number of cameras will be reduced to about 650 from the current 2,200. Virtually every province uses photo radar to some extent, but Alberta has, until now, been a leader.
Amidst the glib BBQ buffoonery, Mr. Dreeshen said that “photo radar penalizes hard-working Albertans without improving safety on the roads.” He claimed the technology also undermines public trust.
First of all, automating traffic enforcement does improve safety; that’s well-demonstrated. But you can’t take overall statistics, like increasing rates of death and injury, and claim that this is because speed cameras aren’t working. There are many other factors.
Secondly, since when did “hard-working” become an excuse for law-breaking? If you work hard, you can speed with impunity?
Thirdly, since when does enforcing a law actually undermine public trust? Is the Minister of Transport actually encouraging lawlessness?
It’s great that kids and construction workers will be a little safer because people will slow down for fear of being fined. And it will make a difference: A pedestrian struck by a car travelling at 50 km/h is almost six times more likely to be killed than a pedestrian struck at 30 km/h.
But why aren’t drivers and passengers (including children) on high-speed highways entitled to the same benefits? We know that speed kills. Crashes that occur at higher speeds are more violent, and hence cause more death and injuries. It’s simple physics.
There were 1,931 fatalities in Canada owing to motor vehicle crashes in 2022, the most recent year for which data are available. There were another 8,851 serious injuries, and 118,853 injuries in total.
There is a lot of carnage on our roads.
The principal contributing factors, according to research are: impaired driving, 23 per cent; speeding, 22 per cent; and distracted driving, 20 per cent.
Speeding may be commonplace, but it’s not harmless.
There are those who argue that speed limits should be enforced by police officers, not automated cameras, because people have more “discretion” than machines, and cops can give stern warnings, as opposed to tickets in the mail.
But police themselves are angry at the changes. They argue that they don’t have the personnel to pull over speeders, and that’s risky work. (Too often, police and other first responders at a crash scene are injured or killed by other drivers.)
When we can use technology to ease the burden of police and improve safety, we should. In fact, we should embrace more, not less.
One example is “intelligent speed assistance,” equipping vehicles with technology that warns them they are speeding, or even slows the vehicle down. This is mandatory on all cars manufactured in the European Union.
Insurers also use black-box technology to know if drivers are speeding, which can limit their coverage in the case of a crash.
From a public health perspective, we should be doing everything in our power to limit death and injury on our roads.
The argument that photo radar is a cash cow is a red herring – if you will excuse the mixing of animal metaphors.
If you don’t want to bolster government coffers, then don’t speed. And there is evidence drivers are doing so. In Alberta, revenue from photo radar has fallen from $203-million in 2019, to $145-million in 2023.
Ideally, that revenue should fall to zero. Not because there are fewer cameras and enforcement, but because there is more automated enforcement, along with less speeding and its associated harms.