Edmonton's Superstar Speed Cameras
$10,000,000
– Just these two
cameras contributed to more than $10 million within 11 months of installing
them. This is approximately 25% of the revenue generated by all the 105 cameras
20x & 12x greater – The number of monthly tickets
issued by these two cameras is 20 and 12 times respectively more than the city
average for tickets from any other camera.
Like many other Edmontonians, I woke up on a Saturday
morning, with a surprise letter from Edmonton Transport Services. From the face
of the letter only, I knew it is not good news. Feeling all pressured by the
COVID already, having a ticket of more than $100 for speeding was not a good
start of the day. In my entire 15 years of driving history, I have never had
any speeding, so this was a big surprise.
Being a data enthusiast from start, I started digging
on news articles and data. Luckily, city has an open data policy, and
Edmonton.ca has data available on all the tickets issued from the Intersection
Safety Devices (ISD)[1],[2]. Kudos to that!
Doing some data analysis, I noticed few surprising
things. Out of 105 ISD cameras installed in the city, just 2 cameras
contributed to more than 25% overall speeding tickets issued in past 15 months,
from January 2019 through March 2020.
Note, one of the camera was only installed in May
2019, and the other one in July 2019, so not even full 15 months operated by
these two cameras, but still contributed 25% of overall tickets.
Further, these 2 cameras had an average monthly
speeding tickets issued at 5,735 and 3,335 tickets per month respectively, with the
overall average being shy of just 280. So, these cameras are at least 12 times
more efficient than other city average cameras.
Definitely, these 2 cameras (SB 127 St @ 126 Ave
and NB Gateway Blvd @ 34 Ave) deserve a special prize from the city. Why
not? They are contributing to roughly 25% of the overall city revenue, or
roughly more than $10m in less than 12 months of being installed?[3]
Are the Edmontonians so crazy in these two locations,
that they will likely speed through these locations 12 times more likely compared
to the other ISD cameras?
To check this question, I went to the road, and evaluated
the locations of these cameras. This is where I was convinced to write this article
and ask the question. As explained in the location photos below, it is due to the
location of the cameras, which I believe, more than a safety issue, are just a
speed camera trap! They are at locations where even a good driver would be
inadvertently caught in high speed. One is getting on Yellowhead trail and the
other is getting off Highway 2. See the photos to see better.
Though a surprise for us, but the city officials must have definitely observed this. But they didn’t act. I would like to conclude by asking why – Are these cameras equally contributing to making these particular zones safe? (I couldn’t find any data on this) or city is fully aware and just using these 2 cameras to earn revenue?
For the data enthusiasts, my analysis and downloaded data is available at the bottom of the page. [5]
 |
| Location 1: SB 127 St @ 126 Ave [4] As can be seen in case of Camera 1, speed limit changes from 50 to 70 getting into Yellowhead trail. |
 |
| Location 2: NB Gateway Blvd @ 34 Ave [4] |
In
case of Camera 2, speed quickly changes from 90 to 70 to 60, and the ISD is at
start of 60 zone.
[1] Data downloaded on 5 August 2020 (Data between 1 Jan 2019 and March 2020 available only). https://data.edmonton.ca/Vehicle-Speed/Intersection-Safety-Device-Tickets-Issued-by-Month/qytp-zt97
[2] Speed limit data: https://www.edmonton.ca/documents/RoadsTraffic/SpeedLimitZones_inclSchoolZones.pdf
[3] Actual revenue is not known.
Estimate based on total tickets issued from the two cameras with an average of
$115 per ticket, as all the tickets have been issued at speeds greater than at
least 10+ km/hr above speed limit. Actual revenue could be much more.
[4] Speed limit zones – source Edmonton.ca (https://www.edmonton.ca/documents/RoadsTraffic/SpeedLimitZones_inclSchoolZones.pdf)
[5] My analysis and downloaded data:
Don the Kondom
ReplyDeleteJust don’t speed mate!
ReplyDelete