Radar presentation made to Strathcona County, Alta.

8/3/2019 Radar presentation made to Strathcona County, Alta.

1/13

Why do officers makesense?

Tuesday, 13 September, 11


2/13

What photo radar cando?

Ticket a huge volume ofvehicles.


What does photo radar do?Photo radar can give a huge volume of photo radar tickets.Now lets compare this to a peace ofcer.


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What can a PeaceOfficer do?

Enforce speeding Enforce no insurance

violations

Catch stolen vehicles

Stop vehicles for

impaired driving

Enforce distracteddriving laws.

Rural Covera e.


Well, what can a Peace Ofcer do?A peace ofcer can enforce speeding, no insurance, stolen vehicles, impaired driving,distracted driving.A peace ofcer is also much much more likely to be enforcing infractions in the rural area.Remember these for later!


4/13

Clearly a peace officer can do more,but what is photo better at?

Enforcing areas that arecurrently moredangerous for mannedofficers.

The sheer volume oftickets issued.


Photo radar is better at patrolling areas an ofcer is unable to safely approach a vehicle thatis pulled over.The sheer number of motorists that photo radar tickets also cant be matched by ofcers.

Are these benefits enough?


5/13

If we want to target volume, ordangerous areas what can we do?

Council has actually

already implemented asolution!

Speed boards and speedwatch!

Speed boards are provento educate drivers

better than photo radarand permanent speedboards can go anywhere!

Finally speed boards arealso very cost effective.


Well, those are good benefits, but what can we do instead?

According to a 2008 presentation to Council, Speedwatch points out: In other jurisdictionsthis campaign has been proven to be even more eective than issuing tickets.

Can this be proven?According to 3M, albeit a maker of speed boards, however based on unbiased studies, after along term installation, speeds of the average vehicle dropped from between 62-64kmh to54-56kmh in a 50kmh zone.

More importantly, and closer to home, in Strathcona County, we have found that on average72 per cent of motorists correct their speed once they see the sign.

Cost of speed boards:Finally, a California study found that for photo-radar it cost $169.51 to slow trafc for eachmile per hour for a 12-hour day, in contrast a speed board cost $2.39 to do the same. Thats71 times more expensive! The same study also notes that: "photo-radar and speed displayboards are about equally eective during deployment,"


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If it isnt speed, what iscausin our accidents?

Distracted driving

Non-Licensed Drivers

Drinking and Driving


Distracted Driving:1 an estimated 20% of 1,517,000 injury crashes were reported to have involved distracted driving in 2009 (NHTSA 2010d).

2 it is generally believed that driver distraction is involved in 20-30% of road crashes (TIRF RSM 2010)

Non-licensed drivers:According to NHTSA (2008b), when license status was known, 13.4% of drivers and motorcycle riders involved in fatal crashes in 2008 had an invalidlicense.

Drinking and Driving:According to the NHTSA 32% of all fatal collisions in the United States in 2009 were caused by drunk driving.

In Canada, 37.1% of fatally injured drivers tested positive for DUI.


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Lets reflect on that. Distracted driving.

Both the NHTSA, and Traffic Injury Research Foundation believe that20% of accidents can be attributed to distractions.

Non-licensed drivers

NHTSA has found that over 13% of driver deaths involve an unlicenseddriver. Thats just under one in six.

Drinking and driving.

In Canada 37.1% of fatally injured drivers were impaired.

These are all preventable.Officers can enforce all of them.



8/13

Why does a ticket from an

officer work better?

Demerits

Insurance Increase

Instant Education

Discretion

(c) Kdt on Flickr


So when an ofcer does catch one of these drivers, what happens?

Demerits:A study from the Trafc Injury Research Foundation found that license revocation or licensesuspensions reduced crashes of dierent types by an average of 13%. Photo radar cant givedemerits.A non-graduated driver would lose his license after 4 +30 tickets or 5 +15 tickets. A newdriver would lose his license after 2 +30s or 3+ 15s.This would take bad drivers oof the road.Insurance Increase:Coming with demerits is increased insurance costs. I looked up insurance quotes with themajor insurers in Alberta, and 4 tickets in 3 years increases rate by at least $1000 yearly, anda 5th ticket increases insurance by $2500 yearly over a non-ticketed driver. If 5 tickets werereceived in year one, one would see $7500 in extra insurance. Thats the same as 38 +30photo tickets.Instant education:Informing drivers of their wrong doing at the time of oence educates drivers better, andprevents multiple accidental infractions in the same location if the driver simply didnt know

the proper speed.The other benefit of an ofcer interacting with a violator is that he can find other issues, apeace ofcer could pull a driver over for a cell-phone ticket, and discover the driver isimpaired.Discretion:Ofcers having the ability to use discretion increases public perception, and gives police ahumane image. It has the downside of reducing revenue, but much more importantly driverswill still respond and correct their behaviours and safety as they know that police ofcers arein the area and conducting trafc stops.


9/13

Conclusions

Officers being much more multi-facetedthan photo radar, are a better usage of our

limited enforcement dollars.

Officers can prevent the root causes ofdangerous accidents.

We would be trading volume of tickets formore effective ticketing, and safer roads.

Traffic safety isnt measured in

kilometres per hour.Tuesday, 13 September, 11


10/13

Sources"Driver Feedback Signs in Sherwood Park :: Strathcona County." Strathcona County. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2011. .

"FARS Encyclopedia: Crashes - Alcohol." National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Sept. 2011. .

"SENSE - Is speed killing us?." SENSE - Safety by Education Not Speed Enforcement. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2011. .

Robertson, RD, KD Marcoux, WGM Vanlaar, and AM Pontone. "The Road Safety Monitor 2010: Distracted Driving" Traffic

Injury Research Foundation. Transport Canada, n.d. Web. 12 Sept. 2011. .

Robertson, RD. "Distracted Driving: So Whats the Big Picture" Traffic Injury Research Foundation. Transport Canada, n.d. Web.

12 Sept. 2011. .

Skites, Dan. "Efficacy of Radar Speed Monitoring Displays in Reducing Vehicle Speeds." 3M Traffic Safety Systems Division.

N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Sept. 2011. .

"Study Reports on the Effectiveness of Photo-Radar and Speed Display Boards." U.S. Roads. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Sept. 2011.

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12/13

When first contemplated, I was unsure as to how manyofficers would equate to the same level of safety asphoto radar.

A public safety expert recommended hiring at least 10more officers. A member of bylaw enforcementrecommended doubling the compliment.

I then asked Paul Badger what his opinion would be forincreased compliment with the caveat that Councilwould likely oppose the doubling of traffic members.He suggested 5 and provided me with a cost estimate.

Lets look at why 5 officers makes sense.

Why 5 new officers?



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Costs

The first year will cost us some money, although this includesthe long-term capital purchase of cars, computers and

furnishing. Both expenses listed include 96k for renting an office trailer

which may or may not be required.

First Year Expense Ongoing Expense

Photo Radar 688,000 688,000

5 extra officers 997,500 669,500Difference -309,500 18,500

Diff. W/O trailer -213,500 114,500

For a small expense we can greatly increasetraffic safety in Strathcona County.


Radar presentation made to Strathcona County, Alta.

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