It is long past time that a proper review of the speed limits and speed limit setting practices was conducted in Alberta. Photo radar has become a mockery of proper speed limit enforcement in the name of "safety" when it is widely regarded and known mainly as a source of revenue.

 

If we truly wish to have safer roads and keep pace with the times, a thorough review needs to be conducted, similar to what was done for the province of British Columbia as seen here: http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/publications/eng_publications/speed_review/

There are some very important fundamentals that they observe in that report, which are the following:

The majority of motorists drive at a speed they consider reasonable, and safe for road, traffic, and environmental conditions. Posted limits which are set higher or lower than dictated by roadway and traffic conditions are ignored by the majority of motorists.

The normally careful and competent actions of a reasonable person should be considered legal.

A speed limit should be set so that the majority of motorists observe it voluntarily and enforcement can be directed to the minority of offenders.

A driver’s choice of speed can impose risks on other road users. Crash severity increases with increasing speeds because in a collision, the amount of kinetic energy dissipated is proportional to the square of the velocity. Crashes, however, appear to depend less on speed and more on the variation in speeds. The likelihood of a crash occurring is significantly greater for motorists traveling at speeds slower and faster than the mean speed of traffic.

Maximum speed limits are set for ideal road, traffic, and environmental conditions.

 

If our Officals and Law Enforcement personnel are genuinely concerned about the safety and well-being of Alberta motorists, photo radar should be scrapped, and ALL aspects of dangerous driving should receive the same amount of attention as "speeding". Right now speeding is a scapegoat to classify someone as a dangerous driver, when speed is only a single factor, useless in isolation, yet the outrage/concern/enforcement for these following risky behaviors doesn't get nearly as much attention:

-drunk driving
-distracted driving
-improperly maintained vehicles
-lack of driver education leading to poorly skilled drivers
-risky driver behavior such as overdriving for road, traffic or weather conditions
-tailgating, lack of signaling, running turn lights and red lights
-improper passing on highways

 

Photo radar is being used as a cash grab in this province marketed in the name of safety. We have photo radar units being parked in areas that are supposed to be as per the following:

"All sites are selected pursuant to the guidelines set out by the Province of Alberta, in relation to high collision corridors, citizen complaints, school zones and construction zones."

Yet instead we see photo radar units parked on overpasses, at the bottom of hills, hidden just after limit changes and more. Not only that, how do these units justify being a hazard themselves in the name of safety, when they are often parked on the shoulders of busy roads, blocking emergency lanes, unmarked, with low visibility.

Getting a ticket in the mail 2 weeks later does nothing to solve the problem of getting actual dangerous drivers off the road. Getting a ticket on the basis of going faster then a set speed with no regards for the flow of traffic, road conditions, time of day etc, is not a useful enforcement tool. More often then not we see traffic slowing down abruptly when photo radar is suspected, creating artifical ripples to traffic flow, then resuming speed afterwards. These unneeded changes to traffic flow create more of a risk due to variance in speed then if speed had remained constant, even above the limit.

Photo radar won't catch or ticket a truly dangerous driver that may be doing the speed limit, weaving in and out of heavy traffic during a congested period, but yet will ticket a driver on a clear stretch of road for doing 10-15 over the limit. How does this make sense?

Instead of lowering the bar for everyone to account for bad drivers, we should be focused on raising our driving standards and improving our drivers education and licensing, much like Europe.