The county’s speed camera pilot project is on track to become “a regular program”. That bit of news was announced by roads chair Gregg Davidson, the primary architect and driver behind the move to surveil and penalize speeders in Wellington County.
Initially, the roads committee, backed by county council, approved implementation of the program with an eye to generating data to improve road safety. With Davidson’s disclosure so early in the process, one has to wonder if the “pilot” talk was simply his way to ease into this abhorrent project with little input from fellow councillors and, more importantly, the general public councillors swore to serve.
To date, the public data has been sparse. The net facts emerging are that there are more tickets issued during daylight hours and some 60% of tickets are issued to plate holders outside of town. Perhaps a report exists or will be requested that spells out actual traffic counts, commercial versus passenger vehicles, traffic volumes specific to school hours (drop-off, lunch and pickup times) amongst other questions to assist council in deliberations on whether to extend the program past one year.
The actual contractor agreement remains shielded from public view, but it is already abundantly clear the program has morphed from a cash cow into a golden goose. The budgeted annual “revenue” target will likely be exceeded in the first few months of the year.
Under this veil of secrecy, the public are left to wonder if Davidson and company thought to negotiate an early exit of the program or allowance for modifications within this trial period to tame the pillaging of personal pocketbooks. Or are residents stuck with a project that enriches a private enterprise and adds to county coffers?
Wellington is not alone in this new method of penalizing drivers. Municipalities across the province have joined under a legislative umbrella to permit cameras in community safety zones. We are not aware of exceptions anywhere to the victim component charge or MTO access fees, which means the province is also extracting its pound of flesh with every speed camera ticket issued.
To be entirely fair to the political class, speeding is one of the most significant complaints politicians get from residents. And we all know accidents, particularly fatal accidents, are made worse by excessive speed. Along with requests for enforcement by police services, dropping speed limits to artificial levels was another tool to try and slow down drivers. Traffic cameras now add the next level of action to appease residents. Some people appreciate them.
It has been posited that these cameras are a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. We can confirm at least one case exists where a speeder was responsible for a tragedy near a school. It can be hoped this argument against cameras doesn’t come up again out of respect for the family. One life lost is one too many, but there is no certainty cameras prevent deaths.
In the spirit of transparency, we haven’t received a ticket yet. We have heard from others and as has been the case in other jurisdictions, tickets were received weeks after the incident occurred.
One such case was a senior, now facing overwhelming fines in excess of $600 for several tickets. This Centre Wellington resident and his wife now must decide how to pay this (in order to keep his licence) and what bills not to pay this month. There are people that live that close to the edge.
We can imagine too, a number of young families where an unforeseen penalty like this will force some financial decisions in the short term. Knowing many road committee members as we do, there will be genuine sympathy for families where these fines cause distress.
But, as Davidson seems comfortable communicating, in less than empathetic terms, the answer is to not speed. On that point he is right, but life happens. “Speed limits are not guidelines, they are the law,” he said. However, if a police officer was on the scene, variables would have been considered, like time of day, flow of traffic, amount of pedestrian traffic – he or she would have exercised judgment. With cameras, it becomes a black and white world.
If indeed speed limits are not guidelines, why does the data and ticket examples to date suggest a threshold provision has been factored into calculations. Is Davidson actually peddling a narrative that drivers are either doing the limit or exceeding it handsomely? Let’s call for some honesty here.
We remain duly uncomfortable with a roads committee not staying in its lane. Granted, legislation might be such that speed cameras are solely their purview, but one would believe a wise choice for thoughtful installations and execution would have included consultation with the local police services board, the Safe Communities committee, planning staff, economic development and so on. This is a big-picture problem with ramifications across the board.
The roads committee is tasked with managing upper-tier roads within a network of provincial and local roads – to move traffic safely and efficiently. Poor planning for school placements, excessive entrances onto major roads and making political choices rather than using engineering standards for speed limits has led to this sad situation. The road system is a mess and getting worse by the year. Governments need to break this pattern and get traffic moving.
As of today’s date, Davidson has facilitated the accumulation of $1.18 million, plus further projected millions, that will not be spent in the local economy. Indeed, a big chunk of that goes Alberta way, never to be seen again.
There’s a far bigger picture here – open your eyes.
