It’s been five years this month since the City of Winnipeg audit department demanded city council produce evidence that photo radar and red-light cameras reduce collisions.
So far, the city has failed to comply with that demand and continues to be in violation of the province’s Condition of Authority policy that allows the city to use photo enforcement.
The Winnipeg Sun has learned an independent traffic analysis that was supposed to be completed at least two years ago has been delayed once again.
After being directed by the city auditor’s department in 2006 to complete “an independent and comprehensive study to determine the effect the program has had on driving behaviour,” the city still has no such report.
City hall commissioned the Traffic Injury Research Foundation to conduct the independent analysis, but it has faced repeated “delays.” It was supposed to be completed by 2009 but was delayed until 2010. Then it was delayed to “late” 2010. When contacted this week, TIRF says it will be delayed until at least March or April.
I’m not holding my breath. The longer the delay, the more money the city, the province and the photo enforcement company makes.
Which is probably why the city continues to violate the terms of the province’s Condition of Authority for photo enforcement. Among other requirements, the city is supposed to produce complete collision reports every year that show whether crashes have gone up or down where red-light cameras and photo radar are used.
Not once has the city complied with that requirement since launching the program in 2003. At best, they have produced incomplete information on intersection cameras, while ignoring Manitoba Public Insurance collision data. And they have provided no collision data whatsoever for photo radar locations.
The longer they get away with that, and the longer the Selinger government fails to enforce it, the more both levels of government siphon easy money into the public treasury.
A third report that is being delayed is an internal city analysis of amber light times.
The group WiseUp Winnipeg last year produced evidence from jurisdictions in the United States, including in the state of Georgia, that showed extending amber lights and making them more appropriate for specific intersections has resulted in a sharp drop in collisions.
The evidence was so compelling it forced Mayor Sam Katz last year to request a report from administration on whether that strategy might work here. The report was supposed to be completed within 30 days and submitted to executive policy committee by Oct. 15, 2010. Four months later, there’s still no report.
When contacted this week, city officials said the report should come out “this spring.” The longer they drag that out, the more money they make from photo enforcement. Longer amber lights would kill the photo enforcement program, like they did in U.S. jurisdictions. So they’re in no rush to implement it here.
Had city officials implemented longer ambers, they could have already started collecting their own data. And unless our driving habits in Winnipeg are wildly different than that of our cousins south of the border, longer and more appropriate amber times — especially where the speed limit is 80 km/h — would have reduced crashes and probably reduced injuries.
For those who don’t know, Winnipeg — incredibly — has a uniform four-second amber time, regardless of the speed of the roadway or the size of the intersection.
Unfortunately, it appears the millions in profits from photo enforcement are more important than safety issues.
Don’t expect these reports to be made public any time soon.
For more, visit Brodbeck’s blog Raise a Little Hell at winnipegsun.com. Reach Tom by e-mail at tom.brodbeck@sunmedia.ca.
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