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Province may ban photo radar after Brampton spent millions on cameras, ticket-processing centre.
(www.bramptonguardian.com)
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Ah yes, the "safety studies" where they pick a 200 m stretch of road and then conclude that because speed has reduced in that area because of the camera, that it means safety now.
Ignoring what happens when vehicles are outside of the capture range... Also ignoring the heavy increase in collisions at those intersections.
Where did you see that they increase collisions?
I've been following traffic science for decades. Look into it, there's a heavy increase in collisions where cameras are present. And furthermore, credible analysis shows that to decrease speeding and increase safety (particularly at intersections) the main improvements are found by synchronizing lights and extending yellow times. But instead what happens is those underlying issues are ignored so the tax can be gathered and "cherry" jobs can be created for former policy-makers as happened in Winnipeg. It's not about safety. It has a safety component, but as with most things, when you scratch and look below the surface, it's a much more complex issue.
I personally feel, and you're free to disagree, that the installation of a camera is an admission that real safety measures are being actively ignored. Shrink the number of lanes? Narrow them? Traffic-calming measures? More roundabouts and fewer timed lights? Nah, just slap a camera there.
As someone who has studied traffic engineering in school and works in road design, I'd be very curious what studies these were.
Only place I've seen this data was as an example in school of what not to do - several states had low yellow times (1-2s shorter than Ontario's), and added red light cameras at large, wide intersections that took longer to cross than the yellow timer, meaning if you entered on a green you could theoretically get hit with a red light violation. But those studies were late 90s, early 00s.
Every piece of data I've seen shows either a reduction in speed (even post camera removal), or minimal change after removal.
Note that studies need to reflect current state cameras in Ontario - only allowed to be used in school zones, and need to have signage present indicating their use. They're not used specifically at intersections.
Additionally, the fees for traffic cameras go back to road redesign budget, which is used (on the projects I've worked on) to provide traffic calming measures like narrower lanes, AT facilities, etc. Cameras should be a stop gap measure, and are vastly preferable to an increase in the polices budget to have increased traffic enforcement presence.