The city's police force says new provincial rules for how photo radar is enforced won't require a lot of change in Medicine Hat, as most are already being adhered to.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
The Medicine Hat Police Service will comply with changes announced Wednesday for how photo radar is used by municipal police forces, mainly because very little is changing.
The province will require some additional data and reasoning to be submitted when cities apply for a location to use the speed-ticketing system, and will extend a freeze on new locations – first announced in 2019 – until the end of 2022.
Vans will also have to be “clearly marked,” according to Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney, who made the announcement in Edmonton. Tickets issued to the same vehicle within a five-minute span will be nullified, and so-called transition zones, where speed limits change, will be off limits.
“There doesn’t appear to be a whole lot that has changed,” said Insp. Joe West of the Medicine Hat Police Service.
“We will have to submit some additional data, but we have 150 locations where we deploy photo radar that are approved and recertified every two years.
“(Clearly marked) vehicles; we’ll certainly look into what’s required and comply.”
Sawhney said starting next spring municipalities will not be allowed to use photo radar in construction zones, except when construction workers are present, and not in school zones unless classes are in session.
Several years ago Medicine Hat city council voted to do away with different school-zone and playground-zone designations, making one combined 30 km/h “playground zone” in effect year round.
Sawhney said the government has heard and is reacting to concerns from the public that photo radar is being used primarily to trap motorists in speed transition zones to boost the bottom lines of municipalities.
“Albertans can be confident these new rules will put a stop to photo radar fishing holes or speed traps,” Sawhney told a news conference Wednesday.
“This is about making sure photo radar will be used to improve traffic safety.”
There are 26 municipalities that use photo radar, which generates about $200 million in annual revenue that is split between the municipalities and the province.
Municipalities will be obligated to provide data on collisions and safety to justify why they are running photo radar at certain locations under allowable criteria, including history of speeding at the location, pedestrian presence or high collision locations.
Starting in June, site criteria that do not match safety priorities will not be allowed.
And next December, all photo radar sites are to be reassessed using new safety-oriented data and standards. Any municipality wanting to add a new photo radar site will first have to try alternative measures such as speed bumps.
Potential abuse of photo radar has been debated for years in Alberta.
In early 2019, the NDP government at the time commissioned a third-party report that estimated photo radar reduced traffic collisions by only 1.4%.
Premier Jason Kenney said the United Conservative government respects the right of municipalities to run photo radar, but added there is a limit.
“We’ve made it very clear in these revised guidelines, which will be enforced, that if municipalities are misusing the power of photo radar to basically generate revenue as opposed to focus on traffic safety, then we won’t permit that,” said Kenney.
Lorne Dach, a critic for the Opposition NDP, said the government intentionally dithered on fixing photo radar for the last two years. He added he expects the government will continue to tacitly support it so as to benefit from the revenue.
“Today’s announcement on photo radar was a quintessential example of ragging the puck,” Dach told the house during question period.
“Nothing is changing. The cash cow lives and Alberta drivers are paying the price.”
Photo radar was introduced in Alberta in 1987.
— with files from The Canadian Press.
