Over 30,000 speeders were caught by photo radar in Grande Prairie in 2020 (EverythingGP file photo)

By Shaun Penner

Photo Radar

Photo radar speeding violations up, total violations down in Grande Prairie in 2020

Aug 18, 2021 | 8:16 AM

Speeders caught by the city’s Automated Traffic Enforcement (ATE) were on the rise in 2020, while the number of collisions and injuries on city roads continued to decline year over year.

A report presented to the Protective and Social Services committee Tuesday shows that in 2020, 30,150 speeders were caught by photo radar, an increase from the 29,268 speeders caught in 2019 and 23,213 in 2018.

Operational Support Supervisor and Chief License Inspector with Enforcement Services Shawn Hibbert says while there is no clear explanation for the rise in speeding violations, even as ATE enforcement hours were decreased by 25 per cent starting last summer, he does say it is something that he finds alarming.

“Considering the reduction of vehicles that were on the roads, as well,” said Hibbert.

Hibbert does however point to the use of data and analytics compiled by Global Traffic Group (GTG), who has the contract for ATE in Grande Prairie, as a possible explanation for the increase.

Meaningful Mementos

Remembering Someone You've Lost at Christmas

Dec 03, 2024

Seasonal Sorrow

How Do You Get Through The Holidays When You're Grieving?

Nov 01, 2024

Upcoming Events at Oliver's

Grief & Loss and Estate Planning Seminars

Oct 02, 2024

He says that data provided by GTG is closely monitored so that the highest problem areas can have more concentrated resources while shifting away from minimally impacted areas.

“We analyze consistently on a weekly basis, the kind of hot spots that we are seeing a lot of infractions, and they are able to redeploy whatever resources they have on the road to those locations,” said Hibbert.

Overall infractions, however, did see a decrease from 2019, coming down about three per cent to 45,284 in 2020. The largest drop was in stop sign offenses, which fell by more than half to 1,478 (down from 3,606 in 2019). Red light violations also saw a drop from 3,005 in 2019 to 2,406 in 2020.

Since 2015, collisions and injuries on the roads of Grande Prairie have also seen steady declines.

Courtesy of the City of Grande Prairie

While it is a bit strange to not see violations decline with collisions and injuries, Hibbert does say those can be lagging indicators if high problem areas are not closely monitored.

“Although we may not be seeing collisions at those locations, there are still violations taking place, and when there are violations taking place… over time that increases the risk for collisions to occur.”

That lack of a corresponding drop in violations, though, is something that does not sit well with City Councillor Dylan Bressey.

Bressey told the committee following the presentation of the ATE report that he is troubled that violations have not seen a larger decline.

“I think that means either we’ve got wrong incentives in the system that our violation numbers are not connected to safety, or there is just something funky going on, and we don’t really know what that is,” Bressey told committee.

“But I continue to have really grave concerns about our photo enforcement program… this report sure didn’t make me feel better about it.”

Hibbert did say though that is something his department could investigate if needed.

“Although an analysis has not been done yet to see whether those changes in speed occurrences at different locations contribute to an increase in collisions at those locations… that would be something that maybe we could look at in the future.”

That drop in collisions and injuries has however led to a decrease in the number of enforcement sites.

In June, Global Traffic Group, Enforcement Services, and the Grande Prairie RCMP created an updated list of enforcement sites, dropping the total by 30 sites to 204 around the city.

Hibbert says this is due to some previously identified problem areas that have started to see minimal infractions or have found intersections that are no longer deemed dangerous.

“To see that these were trouble spots back when they were first implemented five years ago… and then now we are seeing ‘hey, we’re not recording the same number of infractions’,” said Hibbert. “In this case, a complete reduction of 30 sites, so that was really good to see.”

A map of ATE zones in Grande Prairie can be found here.