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Red light cameras get green light |
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Written by Gerald Gauthier LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Wednesday, September 30 2009, 9:33 PM |
Lethbridge motorists who run red lights or speed through some problem intersections in the city will begin getting traffic tickets in the mail early in the new year.
Lethbridge regional police announced Wednesday that they’re proceeding with the installation of red-light cameras at three major intersections where collisions and other safety issues are chronic problems. By late this fall, the red-light camera equipment is to be installed at the intersections of 3 Avenue South and 13 Street, University Drive and Garry Drive West, and 5 Avenue South and Mayor Magrath Drive.
A three-month public awareness campaign is to start today which will include signage at each intersection as well as other notifications through the media and on the police service’s website.
“The signs will be up for 90 days before anyone gets a ticket,” Insp. Tom Ascroft said after briefing the Lethbridge Regional Police Commission on the initiative.
Warnings will be issued to motorists during the final month of awareness campaign.
“The point of it isn’t to write as many tickets as we can, the point is to deter people,” he said. “We really, really want people not to run red lights.”
The City of Lethbridge is funding the $277,000 cost of the new equipment out of revenue from photo radar. Police are projecting the system will pay for itself within the first year with revenue it generates from red-light and speeding violations. Net revenue from the devices are projected to be about $259,000 in their second year of use.
The units are triggered when motorists enter the intersection after the traffic light has turned red and when vehicles speed through a green light. The camera will take a timed sequence of two photos which will allow the speed of the photographed vehicle to be calculated.
Along with in-road sensors, a special pole and camera housing will be installed at each intersection. Only one camera is being purchased which will be rotated among the intersections. Motorists won’t be able to tell on any given day which intersection has the camera.
Photo radar was introduced in Lethbridge in 1997 under the operation of a private contractor and was taken over by local police in 2003. Red-light cameras have been approved for use in Alberta since 1999.
A motorist caught on camera speeding through a red light will receive only one ticket for a red-light violation. In addition, the only vehicles photographed will be those which enter an intersection after the traffic light turns red and don’t come to a full stop. Those who enter on yellow and are still in the intersection when the light switches to red will not be photographed.
Winter road conditions will be taken into consideration as well, Ascroft said.
“We try and exercise common sense. But again, it measures speed, so if it’s an icy day and you blow (through) a red light at 60 kilometres an hour in a 50 zone . . . no one’s going to have much patience for that. If you’re sliding through at 20 km/h on the ice and you’re photographed, that’s not something that would get you to court,” he said.
Between 2006-2008, there were 43 collisions at the intersection of 13 Street and 3 Avenue. In the same period, there were 36 collisions at the Garry Drive West-University Drive West intersection and 21 collisions at the intersection of Mayor Magrath Drive and 5 Avenue South.
Under the Traffic Safety Act, the fine for running a red light is $287. Specified penalties also apply for speeding and increase based on the amount by which the limit is exceeded.
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