One man's crusade against photo radar

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Todd Dube takes to the street Tuesday to continue his campaign against photo radar.

Todd Dube says he isn't in this for himself -- he's just doing what he thinks is right.

Since the day he got a photo-enforcement ticket for running a red light at the intersection of Grassie and Lagimodiere boulevards two years ago, the 48-year-old father of two has waged what's essentially been a one-man crusade against photo radar and everything else he says is wrong with how Winnipeg controls the traffic on its roads.

"I went on a self-driven journey to gather information," the owner of advertising and marketing company MediaScene says. "I got angry."

Dube and former police officer Larry Stefaniuk came up with WiseUp Winnipeg, an activist group formed to not only draw attention to what he saw as the unfairness of photo radar but everything else the city does to control traffic on its roads, from poor signage marking the speed limit, short amber light times and roadside police traps to catch drivers in the city's restrictive diamond lanes.

"I simply started this to right a wrong because I truly believe that people shouldn't be relinquished of their grocery money for no damn good reason," he says. "I'm out there basically trying to save people money on my own time and my own dime."

What started as a two-man outfit has swelled to more than 1,000 people, Dube says, largely because of the public outcry over tickets issued by a mobile photo radar unit parked near Grant Avenue and Nathaniel Street. Many motorists say the tickets are unfair, claiming the unit's camera did not measure speed correctly and that they will fight their tickets in court.

Dube has financed WiseUp's activities, such as an event Monday where a sign was put up in St. Norbert warning of a police speed trap, out of his own pocket, a bill he says is into the "thousands of dollars."

The sometimes brash Dube hasn't won any friends at city hall, the Winnipeg Police Service or the Progressive Conservatives.

He doesn't care. He's on a mission. He's bombarded police with access-to-information requests seeking data on the timing of when most red-light tickets are issued -- how long has the light switched from amber to red when the vehicle is tagged by the intersection camera.

Dube says he needs that information to prove amber lights are set too short. It's his belief nearly 100 per cent of the red-light tickets issued by the program are within the first second after traffic lights change to red, with the majority in the first two-tenths of that second.

The longtime Progressive Conservative party member and donor has quit the party over what he says is its reluctance to be more critical of photo enforcement.

Dube says he's in the process of registering a new political option with Elections Manitoba, the Manitoba Party, to run candidates in the 2015 provincial election.

"What's going to be born out of these ashes is going to be a new party that represents people," Dube says. "I don't need a career in politics. I have a job. I'm talking to some political people. They recognize this total public disconnect that politics has become. They're ready to jump ship. The Manitoba Party, like the Saskatchewan Party, like the Wildrose party (Alberta), will be that Manitoba alternative."

The fate of photo radar will be decided in the coming months as the city's contract with ACS Public Sector Solutions expires at the end of the year. There are rumblings the plug will be pulled on it, the most visible being at the provincial level where the NDP appear to be in no hurry to amend legislation to allow for digital cameras to replace the current cameras, which use outdated film. Without digital camera, ACS or any other provider isn't interested in negotiating with Winnipeg.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 11, 2012 A5