Speeding strategy hits close to home
Attitudes change when public gets say in enforcement
An Australian experiment may hold the key to rebuilding public confidence in Edmonton’s photo radar and red light camera system.
Safety experts in New South Wales allow community members to nominate locations for new speed traps.
The government reports safety results for each individual camera back to the community. If the cameras aren’t reducing injuries and fatalities, they’re removed.
Marg Prendergast, general manager for the New South Wales road safety project, told an Edmonton conference this week how the efforts turned around public attitudes.
“It’s interesting,” Edmonton Coun. Ben Henderson said. “The real challenge is convincing people we’re not doing this as a money grab but because there are real safety issues. Anything that can help that happen is advantageous.
“Trust is broken on this, rightly or wrongly.”
City councillors were hammered with criticism last fall after the auditor found a cost overrun of $47 million when Edmonton took over photo radar from a private company. At the same time, city staff deployed three times as many enforcement units as planned. The higher revenue covered the cost overrun.
A petition calling on city hall to cancel the program garnered 20,000 signatures.
New South Wales had its own scandal in 2011, when the minister of roads accused the previous government of using the cameras to raise revenue.
An auditor was called in. It found the 141 cameras were improving safety in all but 38 locations.
The ministry committed to review each camera every year.
Prendergast said their work since then has changed the conversation. “We used to get a lot of negative publicity. We don’t get that anymore,” she said.
“The most significant thing we’ve done is open up to let the community nominate locations. It’s about bringing the community on the journey.”
New South Wales only puts red light cameras and photo radar at high-collision locations. Any person can nominate an additional location by going online, finding the spot with Google Street View, and describe why enforcement is needed.
Staff review the location and prioritize it if it meets their criteria.
“We thought it was going to be the quietest website ever,” Prendergast said. Instead, there have been nearly 2,000 nominations. “It’s given the community a voice to say we do care about road safety.”
New South Wales also directs all of the ticket revenue to road safety.
It publicizes all fixed photoradar locations, online and on-site. Its red light cameras at high-collision intersections has led to an average 36-percent reduction in injury collisions and a 49-per-cent reduction in pedestrian and cyclist injuries, she said.
Gerry Shimko, executive director for the Office of Traffic Safety in Edmonton, said the city also targets high-collision locations for enforcement.
But it uses a scientific methodology it developed and would like to keep proprietary so it can be sold to other cities.
He said the recent public backlash was caused by a lack of information about how enforcement reduces collisions. estolte@edmontonjournal.com