(EverythingGP file photo)

By Connor Gunn/LethbridgeNewsNOW

More Municipal Autonomy

Alberta modifying rules on photo radar to ensure use is “not for revenue”

Dec 1, 2021 | 4:25 PM

EDMONTON, AB – Alberta’s government is restricting the use of automated traffic enforcement (ATE), putting the onus on municipalities to justify each location where photo radar is deployed.

The province says changes will start in April 2022 to enhance accountability and transparency, ensuring that photo radar technology is used primarily for traffic safety, not for revenue.

Changes coming into effect in 2022 that will help Albertans include:

• restrictions on photo radar use in transition zones and on residential roads with less than 50 km/h speed limits
  • restrictions do not apply to school, playground or construction zones
• eliminating double ticketing within five minutes
• mandating all photo radar enforcement vehicles be clearly visible
• requiring rationale and data for sites to justify the use of photo radar

Kaycee Madu, Minister of Justice and Solicitor General says these changes will help drivers in Alberta.

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“Photo radar should only be used for traffic safety – not as a cash cow to squeeze extra money from Albertans. Our government has worked with police services and municipalities to implement changes that will ensure photo radar technology is used only to ensure our roads remain safe.”

Alberta Transportation and Alberta Justice and Solicitor General will work directly with municipalities and law enforcement agencies on new requirements.

Municipalities have approximately one year to enact these changes, including those that have budgetary implications.

The freeze on automated traffic enforcement instituted Dec. 1, 2019, will be extended until Dec. 1, 2022, to allow municipalities to implement the new guidelines.

“Our NDP government committed to ending the use of photo radar as a revenue stream,” said Lorne Dach, NDP Critic for Transportation. “After two years of dithering, the UCP has decided to keep picking the pockets of Alberta drivers, who are already paying soaring costs for gasoline and auto insurance.

In 2018, party officials say then-NDP Transportation Minister Brian Mason began the process to “kill the cash cow” of photo radar tickets, following the release of a 170-page study that found photo radar only contributed to a 1.4 per cent decline in traffic collisions. But following the election, the NDP says the UCP scrapped that plan and actually increased the province’s share of photo radar revenue.

“In the overwhelming majority of cases, photo radar is not a traffic safety tool, it’s a way to extract money from drivers, plain and simple,” Dach said. “The UCP is making it more expensive than ever to drive in Alberta.

“Today’s announcement of tiny half measures will have no effect on reducing the flagrant misuse of photo radar. The minister admitted as much when she said today’s measures will have minimal impacts on revenues.”

“Alberta families are already paying more income tax, more property tax, more school fees, more tuition, more interest on student debt, more camping fees, more for utilities and more for car insurance, all thanks to the UCP. They are also reducing the real value of benefits for families, seniors, and Albertans with disabilities.

“Minister Sawhney had the opportunity to reduce the financial pain for Alberta families today and she chose not to.”

(With files from rdnewsNOW)