Image Credit: Global News

By Simon Little - Global BC

Speeding Enforcement

Speed cameras coming to 35 B.C. intersections this summer, none in Kamloops

May 7, 2019 | 2:38 PM

VICTORIA — Lead-footed drivers who speed through some of the province’s busiest intersections could soon find a photo and a speeding ticket arriving in the mail.

The province is activating speed-detection technology built into red-light cameras at 35 of the province’s highest-risk intersections.

The Ministry of Public Safety says it analyzed crash data from B.C.’s 140 Intersection Safety Cameras, and chose the 35 with the best opportunity to increase safety by cracking down on speeders.

“We have a record number of crashes happening – more than 900 a day in our province – and about 60 per cent of the crashes on our roads are at intersections,” said Mike Farnworth, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General in a media release.

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MAP: Location of all 35 B.C. speed cameras (Credit: Global BC)

“We’ve taken time to systematically pinpoint the locations linked to crashes and dangerous speeds that are best suited to safely catching, ticketing and changing the behaviours of those who cause carnage on B.C. roads.”

The cameras will be able to nab speeders on green, yellow or red lights, but will only fire when drivers are going “well over the posted limit.”

The NDP denies the new program is like the old, unpopular photo-radar regime that the party implemented in the 1990s.

Under that program, police in unmarked vans parked in random locations and issued tickets at low speeding thresholds. It was scrapped in 2001.

Farnworth says under the new program, the intersections will be clearly marked with warning signs to alert drivers.

The ministry says it will not disclose the exact threshold of speeding that will trigger the camera, in order to discourage all speeders.

It said that threshold may also change in the future, based on how the program works out.

According to the province, between 2012 and 2016, its network of red light cameras recorded about 10,500 drivers zipping through intersections at more than 30 km/h over the speed limit.

The province says warning signs will begin to go up this summer, but has not provided an exact date about when the cameras will be activated.

The province initially rolled out a batch of red-light cameras last summer with the plan of adding speed enforcement, but delayed the activation of the second phase in order to study which intersections posed the highest risk.