Calgary drivers have a need for speed
Posted Feb 1, 2013 7:58 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
New statistics from police show more tickets were issued by those electronic devices that monitor intersections in the city.
Last year, a total of 331,447 tickets were given out to drivers who were caught speeding by photo radar cameras, for speeding through intersections or blowing red lights.
That’s up almost 60,000 from 2011.
Inspector Dean Lagrange with the traffic unit tells The Calgary Sun the numbers suggest either drivers are not paying attention or they simply don’t care.
Demerit points are not attached to those fines.
Don Szarko with the Alberta Motor Association tells 660News, efforts to change the attitude of drivers need to be ramped up.
Szarko says a recent survey found over 90 per cent of drivers in the province admit to driving 10 to 15 kilometres over the posted speed limit all the time.
The only positive thing about the stats, fewer drivers are blowing red lights, with the number of those tickets down from 17,064 in 2011 to 15,207 in 2012.
Police are kicking around the idea of replacing the black and white warning signs with a colour version.
While the additional revenue is welcomed by police, they say they would prefer if drivers kept their money by slowing down.
Surplus ticket revenue is now being put in a police reserve fund, but the force has been told to reduce their budget request from the city by a similar amount.
