tens of millions of dollars are extracted from citizens each year by the grossly excessive and abhorrent misuse of photo radar cameras
Alberta Party candidate calls for inquiry into misuse of photo radar cameras
April 8, 2019 - Edmonton
Photo radar cameras do not position themselves along our streets, roads and highways, people place them there.
First, someone perceives a need in a specific location to slow traffic down to prevent accidents and injuries, not only to drivers, but pedestrians as well. The perceived need is usually in response to an area where there has been a significant number of accidents, known as an accident cluster.
Excessive speed is not the only cause of areas of high accidents. Other factors, such as, visibility caused by the obstruction of stop signs by vegetation, or cars parked too close to an intersection, making it difficult for other drivers to gauge when it is safe to proceed into an intersection, weather, the condition of the road itself, or even the sun shining directly into a driver’s eyes. In a phrase, there are many factors which create accident clusters.
Therefore, the proposed site for the placement of a speed camera will be visited by our road maintenance department, the civil engineering department as well as law enforcement concerned with traffic control, among others. An assessment will then be made to the various city departments, including budget and finance.
Under other circumstances, the provincial depart of transportation may inform a municipality that their statistics indicate a location that needs to be the subject of increased traffic patrolling or other measures, due to traffic accidents reported to them routinely.
Once a need is perceived various committees of city council meet to decide if the placement of a speed camera might be an appropriate remedy. They will question all the relevant municipal departments involved, and since there are budgetary considerations, the mayor’s office will be kept informed.
The same way that the Premier’s office is informed because there may be provincial, as well as, federal funds involved, often on a fund-matching basis.
In a nutshell, photo speed cameras are placed in areas of perceived need based upon an assessment of a location by municipal departments, officials and local law enforcement, with input by provincial and at times both provincial and federal departments and officials.
The above description of the routine process by which photo radar speed cameras are placed along our streets, roads and highways is incompatible with the recent discovery that to a large extent, the placement of photo radar speed cameras has had everything to do with revenue and precious little to do with accident reduction and prevention, traffic safety.
Every level of government involved in this potentially scandalous behaviour, after the shocking news broke widely in the press, issued a statement that for all practical purposes reads: ‘there was no collusion’.
These statements have been forthcoming from every municipality involved, every department of provincial government, including Premier Rachael Notley. A recent piece in the Edmonton Journal addressed the hypocrisy involved.
Jonathan Dai, Alberta Party candidate for Edmonton-Whitemud, is calling for an independent investigation into this affair. Dai stated, “It is evident, as has been widely reported, that there is reasonable cause, to believe that decisions as to the placement of these cameras, in some instances, were made on the basis of revenue and not accident prevention, which is their stated and noble purpose.”
“Individuals made these decisions under the ‘colour of authority’, using the machinery of government to extract nearly 100 million dollars from the citizens of our two largest, albeit cash-challenged cities, Calgary and Edmonton, over the past year, alone.” A Dai campaign spokesperson commented.
“However, it is also clear that we do not wish to pre-judge the independent inquiry that we are calling for,” Dai remarked, “ but at the same time, it is a principle of our way of doing things in this province that we do not allow those who extract money from people outside of proper and legal means, to keep the proceeds of their wrongdoing.”
“I am calling for an independent inquiry to look into this rather sad state of affairs, concerning photo radar cameras and the intent of their placement.” Dai concluded.
The Alberta Party is committed to proposing innovative and practical solutions that improve the lives of Albertans, Dai stated.
For more information, or to arrange an interview: Jonathan Dai, Alberta Party Candidate for Edmonton-Whitemud: [email protected] P: 780 721 6183