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Cameras put dent in speeding

Hate them if you will; stats show drivers truly going slower in photo-radar zones

By: Bruce Owen

3/07/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 35

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(WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS )

WINNIPEG — They've been the focus of anger from speeding motorists caught in their snare, created legal controversy -- and even sparked calls for Justice Minister Dave Chomiak's resignation.

But new statistics to be released today show photo-radar cameras in construction zones have made a dramatic dent in the number of drivers exceeding the speed limit.

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"In one year we've had a positive behavioural change," Winnipeg police traffic unit Sgt. Doug Safioles said. "It shows that we don't care about the money. We're way down on tickets."

The data are based on police tracking of the number of speeders photographed in 2008 and in the first few months of this year's construction-zone enforcement program.

Safioles said the drop is best reflected in the number of tickets issued per 1,000 vehicles monitored by the photo-radar units at the Bishop Grandin bridge construction site this April and May compared to April and May 2008.

Last year, 115 vehicles per 1,000 were clocked for speeding by the cameras; in the same period this year only nine vehicles per 1,000 were tagged.

The statistics also show that drivers are passing through reduced-speed 60-kilometre-per-hour construction zones a lot slower now than they were last year. When the enforcement campaign began a year ago, speeds averaged about 74 km/h. The average is now 58 km/h.

"What we've seen is a dramatic reduction in offences," Safioles said. "People are compliant now. They get it. No matter how you explain the numbers, people are slowing down."

The slowdown also comes after the debate over photo radar made headlines throughout the spring as it moved from the courts to the floor of the Manitoba legislature.

Police have made no apologies for enforcing reduced speeds in construction zones -- even on weekends -- because they say it's about making the roads safer not only for construction workers during the week, but other drivers on the weekend.

Police are to release the speeding statistics today. They were compiled after a request from the Free Press. The statistics focus on Bishop Grandin Boulevard because it's the only major construction zone where police could gather data to show speeding trends this year and last.

Safioles said the numbers also show that of the thousands of people who drive through a reduced-speed construction zone, only a small few get a ticket.

"There's lots of outcry, but most people are compliant," he said. "Only 0.1 per cent of vehicles monitored are getting tickets."

The statistics are being released as police step up photo-radar enforcement on McGillivray Boulevard because of a road-widening project between Kenaston Boulevard and Waverley Street. Enforcement continues on Bishop Grandin and on Dugald Road between Lagimodiere Boulevard and Plessis Road.

The hue and cry over speed traps in construction zones erupted in early May when the Crown said it wasn't going ahead with 875 speeding cases because the construction zones did not have the proper signage signalling the end of the zone and a return to the posted speed limit.

Critics said the province should issue refunds to motorists who had already paid fines related to the 60,000 other tickets that were improperly issued.

Chomiak hemmed and hawed for a couple of days before he said there would be no refunds, as payment of a fine was an admission of guilt.

Progressive Conservative justice critic Kelvin Goertzen said Thursday he wants all deployment records for photo radar made public to ensure the public has confidence in the credibility of photo radar.

Goertzen said in a statement he filed a Freedom of Information request for the times and places of photo-radar deployment over the past three years to determine if photo radar is being used to protect workers in construction zones and children during school hours, or if it is mostly being used at construction zones where there are no workers to maximize revenue with no impact on safety.

He said his request was denied.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

 

 

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 3, 2009 B1

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35 Commentscomment icon

unjustice huh?

RNP Thinks headlines can be misleading. Thank you so very much for informing us of that. You're really on the ball.

Scam juvenile...really. 1sd above the norm? That is so irrelevant and outdated it's ... ummmm ... absolutely useless. I hope your statistics background is enough for you to know what you're talking about. Keep your head in your websites, it'll do you well in life.

paket check out the Solomon Curve.

Who really has time to read all this back & forth b.s.. Realistically other than a cash grab & a pain in the butt for business owners with dirvers, its just resulting in having all the losers in this city who can't pay for the tickets driving without their license...there are a lot of them! Just wait & see as the unpaid tickets add up. Food, vices license where do you think they'll spend their money?

Misleading. No surprise.

Spin it any way you want, the reason the numbers are down is because construction zone radar was so prominent in the news. The huge numbers from last year were because of the trap scenario. Now everyone knows. They haven't been forced into compliance. They just know what the deal is.

The scam continues. Equating lower speed with safety is misleading. The safest speed is the 85th percentile speed. If you want to prove the cameras are working, you need to compare injuries and fatalities. WHERE ARE THOSE NUMBERS? If reducing speeds is what makes the roads safer, then everyone should be driving 10 or less. Or let's just get rid of cars, that would be even safer.

And besides, If the violations are down to 9 per 1000, then you can remove the cameras now, as it's no longer a problem. PhotoRadarScam.com

Packet,

If you are going to use the line "Using your line of reasoning" referring to one of my posts, please use my line of reasoning.

Your attempt to separate the dangers of speed from the dangers of momentum is fallacious, as the mass of the vehicle alone (at the posted speed) brings the momentum to a dangerous level. The danger is present no matter what, the increased speed increases the danger. Therefore the increase in danger caused by the increased speed is an inherent danger in speeding.

So if you remove the context you change some characteristics?

Are you saying the letters s p e e and d, arranged in that order, have no inherent danger?

Very good! To remove context is to remove meaning, so what you are saying is quite meaningless.

Somebody needs a lesson in semantics.

This whole article is a joke. Also how the police are spinning this is also a huge joke. Last year on eastbound bishop was a straight path over the bridge with no diversion, so people wouldn't slow down. Now this year the east bound bishop grandin traffic has a diversion on to the westbound bridge, which is why people are slowing down.

And they placed the reduced speed like 30 feet before the diversion and the place the photo radar vehicle there. but since people have to slow down to make the turn for the diversion, that is the only reason why the amount of tickets have gone done on the east bound side.

Funny how they aren't reporting the westbound side which i have yet to see a vehicle site there this year.

Mhirnatsu - that's a great explanation of the dangers of momentum, which is, as you pointed out, different than speed. Using your line of reasoning, we should post mass limits right next to the speed limits.

whatisee - perhaps I'm missing something. Please name some of the 'inherent' dangers of speeding, ones that don't depend on context, location or situation.

Of course, there are none. That makes speeding a secondary risk factor, not a primary one. Speeding is associated with, and is related to other dangers, but that doesn't make them one and the same.

Packet, I disagree. Speeding is inherently dangerous.

An object's speed(or rather velocity) as well as its mass determines its momentum.

In the event of a collision, which can occur regardless of your speed, the relative momentum between the two object determines the extent of the damage.

If something has a low relative momentum, it's more of an irritant than anything. If it has enough momentum to cause a bruise, I won't like it, but I will recover. If it has enough momentum to cause serious harm, it is a problem. And if it has enough to kill, then although I will not care after the fact(being dead in all), then it is a major problem.

Considering my mass, my fastest unassisted velocity, and the mass of a vehicle, an increase of 14kph (the average speed last year was 74kph, which is 14 above the "posted" limit) is very much inherently dangerous.

"People 'speed', regularly and safely, in places that are designed to handle it."

Safely? People die regularly due to speed even in the most "safely designed" venue. Speed has many inherent dangers.

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