REGINA — Get ready to see more red light camera ticketing at intersections in Regina.
Council voted this week 8-2 in favour of a resolution continuing and expanding the red light program. The resolution that passed at Wednesday’s council meeting includes expanding the program to include ticketing for all red light violations including right turn violations.
It also called for submission of a letter to SGI as the governing body for the Traffic Safety Act to advocate changes to the act that would clarify municipalities are authorized to use red light camera video technology for “speed on green” automatic enforcement at urban intersection locations with red light technology.
The Red Light Safety Program has been in place since 1999, with red light cameras placed at three high collision locations in the city: Albert Street and Parliament Avenue, Saskatchewan Drive and Albert Street, and Lewvan Drive and Dewdney Avenue.
In speaking to reporters, Mayor Sandra Masters said the result of having those red light cameras there is that “they work, they reduce severe collisions.”
“There has been a reduction since their inception of 38 per cent of severe collisions.”
She said Regina Police Service, SGI and their traffic team work together regularly to put measures in place to affect driver behavior.
“Right now, what we know is that we have, based upon information coming out of those red lights, is that there are significant number of people who are rolling through red lights to make right turns. And I don’t think I need to describe what that might look like in terms of visually if the car is on your left and you are turning right and there’s a pedestrian coming, you won’t see them. The law says you stop at a red light and then you proceed. So, if we’re trying to make roads safer for everything from vehicles to cyclers to pedestrians, to transit, when we’re watching these infractions that are appearing on red lights that we would do something to try to affect a change in behaviour to reduce any incident of any type of collision, but in my mind specifically with pedestrians, because it’s a very dangerous circumstance to be in when you’re walking.”
The other issue she pointed to — one raised by Councillor Bob Hawkins at the meeting — was vehicles who “pin it” to speed through the yellow in order to beat the red light to avoid a ticket.
Masters said the idea was to do something to "modify that behaviour, because that’s risky behaviour and it puts other people at risk, and we’d like that behaviour to change.”
There have been accusations from the public that the program is nothing more than a cash grab for the city. However, city officials revealed the program actually operates at a loss. The program costs $370,000 but only brings in about $130,000, and is expected to continue at a loss even with the expansion.
“This doesn’t net us money,” was the point made by Councillor Andrew Stevens. “To folks who think this is a simple cash grab, it is not.”
One councillor not on board with expanding the program was Jason Mancinelli, who said that while the red lights do provide safety, he worried that “putting another check and balance on the road” might actually create more risk of accidents.
He tried to move an amendment to stay with the status quo. But that was ruled out of order, and so in the end Mancinelli voted against the main motion. With Councillor Terina Shaw these were the only two votes in opposition.
