‘Ottawa’ Ottawa Committee Sticks to Slow Lane on Photo Radar
It’s a slow and steady race toward photo radar in Ottawa.
The city’s transportation committee voted to ask the province for permission to use photo radar, but only in school zones and only when councillors agree.
That’s a big step back from what Coun. Riley Brockington envisioned when he raised the issue in March. He hoped then to ask the province for broad permission, and to let council work out when and how to use the tool.
Limiting its use to school zones won’t address many of the chronic speeding problems on Ottawa roads, Brockington said.
He cited Walkley Road, which serves four elementary schools but isn’t considered a school zone.
Still, “Walkley Road is where the children cross,” Brockington said.
He said the city should be able to deploy radar based on speed data and collision rates.
Gloucester South-Nepean Coun. Michael Qaqish even asked committee chairman Keith Egli to broaden the motion to that effect, but Egli shot it down.
Egli drafted the new motion with the help of Mayor Jim Watson, who had been against photo radar initially but softened his stance to test it out in areas where there are “vulnerable residents.”
Watson also made sure the motion directs any ticket revenue back to road safety programs, to avoid the accusation that the program is a “cash grab.”
Egli said data from the two-year school zone pilot is necessary to prove photo radar works, before diving in city-wide.
Staff already have a lot of data: they outlined Wednesday how programs in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Gatineau have led to drastic decreases in collision rates and fatalities in those cities.
In Gatineau, for example, collision rates dropped 58 per cent where permanent cameras were installed. In Edmonton, fatal and severe collisions dropped 32 per cent, and Winnipeg saw a 24 per cent drop in injury-causing collisions at its radar intersections.
All but one of the day’s 15 delegates spoke in favour of photo radar – and most urged the city to go farther, faster.
“Photo radar’s going to work, we know it,” said safe streets advocate Kevin O’Donnell. “I think you should just go all the way now.”
He said school zones are worthy targets, but so are streets with a history of speeding that aren’t near a school.
While he said the current plan is better than nothing, he predicted that “residents are going to want it to work in all parts of the city.”
Having to go back to the province a second time for to ask for broader rules is “just going to delay how long it takes to get there,” O’Donnell said.