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Red light cameras inch closer |
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Written by Sherri Gallant LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Wednesday, June 24 2009, 8:56 PM |
Lethbridge regional police will know by the end of July how much it will cost to install three intersection safety devices — better known as red-light cameras — at key intersections in the city where collisions have become frequent occurrences.
“Right now we’re still planning,” said Inspector Tom Ascroft.
“We’ll find out what it’s going to cost, then we’ll put a business case together and it will go to the police commission for approval.”
Unless the commission turns down the request, plans would then proceed to install the cameras. The first sites identified in consultation with the city, are at 3 Avenue and 13 Street South; University Drive and Garry Drive West; and 5 Avenue and Mayor Magrath Drive South. On behalf of the police service, the city issued a request for proposals which closes July 23, asking vendors for the cost to supply and install the cameras along with a system that would connect them to the software already in place for the photo radar system.
Photo radar has been operating in Lethbridge since 2003, but police opted against adopting red-light cameras when they were first authorized for use in Alberta, in 2002, which is when Calgary installed its system.
“We just didn’t do it when Calgary did it, because we didn’t have the volume (of traffic) and we didn’t think it would be a viable thing here,” Ascroft said. ”Our collisions are rising and we’ve got to come up with some strategies to reduce those collisions. We had a couple of years of some fairly decent declines, but over the last three or four years we’ve seen it rise every year.”
The penalty for running a red light is $287. The devices are set to trip when a motorist enters an intersection after the light is already red, but they also capture images of drivers who speed through the green light, for which specified speeding penalties apply.
The data collected would be transmitted directly to the police station.
“If you’re driving too fast, not leaving enough time to get places, not paying attention — and if you’re doing that and you blow a red light — there’s collisions,” Ascroft said.
“If everybody got in their cars and had enough time to drive to work at the speed limit, obeyed the traffic signals, and didn’t cut people off - we could avoid this.”
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