Photo by Curtis Galbraith

By Curtis Galbraith

Roads

Province slaps temporary freeze on new photo radar equipment

Nov 26, 2019 | 1:16 PM

The provincial government says it is putting what it describes as a “temporary freeze” on photo radar equipment.

This means that as of Sunday, police and municipalities will not be able to install new cameras or upgrade ones already in place.

Government officials say they want to make sure photo radar is used to keep roads safe, not make money.

“Our goal is to ensure photo radar is used for safety, not to generate backdoor tax revenue. Albertans are skeptical about the impact photo radar has on safety and we do not have useful data to analyze so we can make a decision. Alberta has three times as many photo radar units per capita as British Columbia but our roads are not meaningfully safer. A temporary freeze means municipalities and police cannot purchase or install new and costly equipment while we work with them to build better oversight and reporting on the effectiveness of photo radar,” says Minister of Transportation Ric McIver in a news release from the province.

The government adds it wants to take another look at the rules that govern data collection, and where cameras can be set up and operate.

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“Traffic tickets should help increase public safety and not be used to generate revenue. We are conducting this review because Albertans need to have confidence that photo radar is an effective way to keep people safe. I look forward to working with the minister of transportation to understand the value of photo radar and see if it’s worth preserving,” added Minister of Justice and Solicitor General Doug Schweitzer in the same release.

The previous government announced photo radar changes in February, also out of concerns it was being raised as a revenue generator rather than to increase safety in the roads.

An independent third party review done in September of 2018 found that photo radar had a marginal impact on safety even though Alberta has the highest amount of photo radar equipment per capita out of all the provinces.