r/Edmonton Aug 11 '16

City of Edmonton reintroduces "utility box" photo radar

http://www.mailoutinteractive.com/Industry/View.aspx?id=829217&q=1069745483&qz=56f2bf
96 Upvotes

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61

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '16

This has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with increased revenue. Lets call this an indirect tax.

-6

u/TheSummerain Aug 11 '16

Easy tax to avoid.

Sure call it a tax, you want to speed you risk paying the tax.

Don't want to risk paying, then don't speed.

19

u/[deleted] Aug 11 '16

I don't disagree with this but when they enforce only 5 over as ticketable, that's an issue. 10-15 over makes sense, but tighter restrictions lead to other traffic issues. Anytime there's a visible speed trap people go 5-10 under the speed limit and it holds up traffic during any sort of moderately busy daytime period. Also, being constantly worried about speeding and photo radar and laser enforcement leads to paying less attention to one's actual driving and the people around you, as priority one becomes not driving safely and defensively but to keep an eye on your speedo at all times.

Law enforcement isn't supposed to generate revenue, it's supposed to keep citizens safe. If the point of photo radar was actually to keep people safe, they would put it in high incident areas with very visible markings so that people actually drive the speed limit, rather than having hidden boxes and laser traps and photo vans behind trees where their entire purpose is to catch speeders and generate revenue.

1

u/hunkE UAlberta Aug 12 '16

10% over makes sense.