Photo radar tech not on Brandon’s radar yet
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/11/2024 (404 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
In case you were wondering, photo radar isn’t on the, well, radar here in Brandon just yet.
With the passage of the City of Brandon’s red light camera and photo radar resolution at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities AGM on Wednesday, it’s now up to the provincial government to decide whether it will green light the idea.
And according to the Brandon councillor who proposed the resolution in the first place last May, it’s not likely to happen anytime soon.
Speeding motorists running through red lights at controlled photo radar intersections would be fined if the technology is implemented in Brandon. This picture shows one such intersection at William Avenue and Isabel Street in Winnipeg with huge warning signs alerting drivers. (Winnipeg Free Press)
“It seems to have drawn a lot of attention for something that is at least 18-24 months from being changed,” Coun. Bruce Luebke (Ward 6) told the Sun on Thursday. “Unless the province is in a hurry to change it, which I don’t think they are, I doubt it will happen in this current term for us.”
As the Winnipeg Free Press reported yesterday, photo enforcement has been regulated by the Highway Traffic Act since 2002, but only Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Police Service can use it.
The province will have to amend the Highway Traffic Act for red light camera and photo radar provisions to be made available to communities outside Winnipeg. And while the AMM will now lobby in favour of the resolution, as it will the other passed resolutions from this week’s meeting in Winnipeg, Luebke says ultimately the province needs to decide whether to take that next step.
Even if and when the province does decide to change the Highway Traffic Act, there is still a requirement for councillors in Brandon or any other municipal government to first decide to adopt the program.
Luebke’s hope, however, is that such a program would become part of the city’s Vision Zero plan, which aims for roads and traffic to be designed in a way that leads to zero deaths or serious injuries every year. Part of that vision includes traffic enforcement.
“I have no qualms about being up front with this,” Luebke said. “If it’s a stationary unit, put it out there (at an intersection). I think it would act the same as a police vehicle sitting there. They would slow down when they saw it.”
From the perspective of the Brandon Police Service, having another tool to augment public safety would be a welcome move.
“Whether it be your kids walking across a busy crosswalk to school in the morning, or elderly pedestrian traffic in the area, we all want our streets to be safe, right?” Brandon Police Service Chief Tyler Bates said in an interview with the Sun earlier this week. “We want our streets to be used in a manner that is respectful of that safety, whether it be for our kids, the elderly, cyclists and motorists alike.”
“We share our roadways and where we have areas of vulnerability and intersections that are congested with increased likelihood of accidents. I believe that this program, if properly applied to those areas of vulnerability would be areas that citizens of Brandon would appreciate and understand.”
In 2021-22 when the subject of photo radar and red light cameras came up before council, the city looked into the feasibility of implementing such a program in Brandon. Luebke says they learned that as much as 85 per cent of any revenue generated by tickets issued through such a program would go back to the company that operates it, with some percentage of the remainder being divided between the city and the provincial government.
The biggest benefit to the city, he said, was that not only would safety be increased on Brandon streets, but that there would be no up front capital costs to be borne by city hall.
“But it’s more of a safety thing than anything else,” Luebke said.
Earlier this week, Luebke told media that it was too early to talk about locations for potential enforcement, but when the time comes, they will use police and MPI data to guide that decision.
Chief Bates suggested it would still be important, prior to the implementation of any photo radar, to do a full evaluation of city streets — a kind of safety audit to find the so-called hot spots.
“It’s those types of analysis that I think,” Bates said, “if the public is educated with respect to those vulnerable sites and those locations where we’re concerned about citizen safety, that people would be a little bit more agreeable and accepting.”
» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com
» Bluesky: @mattgoerzen.bsky.social