Edmonton police target speeding on Stony Plain Road

By Shaamini Yogaretnam

EDMONTON — Edmonton police are targeting speeding on Stony Plain Road in an effort to collect information on why motorists speed and what types of enforcement work to get motorists to slow down.

The strategy includes the alternating use of photo radar, intersection safety cameras, manned enforcement and a combination of the city’s anti-speeding signs.

Sgt. Patti Nichol belongs to the department that looks after things like photo radar and intersection safety cameras . She explains that the strategy has both a present purpose and a future goal.

“We want to learn how we affect [speeding] on a short-term basis and how we affect speeding and traffic on a long-term basis,” Nichol said.

Some motorists and residents of the area, however, maintain that the strategy on Stony Plain Road is really just a combination of speed traps.

NMA and Edmonton’s speed-trap ranking

The recent strategy was in place prior to the National Motorists Association’s ranking of Edmonton as the 19th highest speed-trap city in North America.

The grassroots driver advocacy organization compiled a list of the 25 highest speed-trap cities in North America and released it in August of this year. Edmonton was one of four Canadian cities on the list.

According to the NMA’s website, ‘speed traps’ refer to those speed enforcement zones whose sole purpose is to generate revenue rather than to increase driver safety. A speed trap could potentially exist at any location that uses intersection safety cameras, photo radar, or even manned enforcement to give speeders tickets.

Stony Plain Road is a major pipeline that runs through the west end and connects the communities surrounding it to other areas of Edmonton. The NMA’s ranking hits particularly close to home for residents who live and work in the areas around this major road who know the speeding issues that have plagued it for the last several years and have experienced the speeding enforcement.

Residents’ Reactions

Stefano Penna, a resident of Meadowlark who drives on Stony Plain Road at least twice a day, recognizes the frequency of speeding motorists on the main road but is not a fan of the photo radar that punctuates many of the intersections along it.

“I think the best thing to do is have our police officers on the street,” said Penna.

“Photo radar is simply a way of generating resources for the coffers of the police department.”

‘We just call it safety enforcement’

Penna’s perspective is one that resonates with Edmonton police. Staff Sgt. Ted Hrebien of the EPS traffic section understands the complaint but he gives both the term ‘speed trap’ and the mentality little credence.

“We just call it safety enforcement,” Hrebien said. “From a police perspective, we don’t look at the revenue, we don’t get the revenue, that goes to the provincial government.”

Speeding and the community

EPS bases its speed enforcement locations on collision data and community input – a formula that looks at the real numbers of accidents and weighs them in tandem with concerns of the residents of communities in which these zones are located. EPS works closely with the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues to get this data and ensure neighbourhood safety.

Nichol underscores the importance of community input in this process.

“We recognize that a lot of times people are more sensitive to an area that they spend more time in, they hear the constant flow of traffic and they know the difference when one is going faster than the norm,” Nichol said.

The Office of Traffic Safety, based on this community feedback, will then conduct a speed survey in the area to measure the changes of speed on the road, and then, if a concern is identified, EPS will enforce the speed with a response that is appropriate to that community.

Nichol acknowledges, though, that roads like Stony Plain that link communities but also major sections of the city together present a particular challenge to speed enforcement.

“You have people coming in to Edmonton on it or through it that may not recognize an area as a residential area like Stony Plain Road and 133 Street,” said Nichol.

“That’s a school area, it’s residential.”

The intersection that Nichol identifies is an intersection well-known in the community and by drivers who use Stony Plain Road frequently. There are signs clearing indicating that photo radar is in effect in the area, a speed-reader that signals your approaching speed and flashes red when a driver has gone over the 50 km/h limit, and Edmonton’s signature fatality sign highlighting that a fatal collision occurred in the area.

Situational Data

Nichol’s department is still in the process of collecting information on the success of speed enforcement on Stony Plain Road. She expects that EPS will have data in a few months. However, Nichol is wary of making definitive claims about the success of speed enforcement – there are a lot of factors that both she and the city need to consider about drivers’ behaviours.

Speeding is more situational and dependent on external factors like the weather of the day or even the construction in the area, said Nichol. Just as the cause of speeding varies with each individual driver and road, the effect of speed enforcement on drivers also varies.

Drivers that live in the community or travel the road on a regular basis  are likely to have a quicker and more permanent response to the enforcement. These are the drivers who might get one ticket and then curb their speeding as a rule. But an infrequent road-user who happens to get a speeding ticket while making the semi-annual trip down a particular road may be less likely to change his or her driving behaviour anywhere else than on the road where he or she got a ticket.

Stefano Penna, however, isn’t against speed enforcement. He would like to see more officer-to-person interaction in the community, though.

“If you’re getting someone for speeding and you have a conversation with them, that’s going to be much more of a deterrent  for the future,” Penna said.

“For a community, you want to have real bodies of real police presence.”