Photo Enforcement: Ten Changes Needed

Few topics in local government get as heated as the photo enforcement of traffic laws. Some people argue “if you don’t break the law you don’t get a ticket so there is no problem.” Others accuse photo enforcement of being exploitive and a cash cow. Should it have a role in our city?

THE SHORT VERSION

Currently our provincial and municipal governments are reviewing photo enforcement. This is good: I have deep concerns about our current implementation of photo traffic enforcement. Anything which causes the distrust and anger at government that photo enforcement causes needs to be re-evaluated. However, my experience and in-depth study of academic literature leads me to believe that it does play a role in enhancing safety. I do not support the elimination of photo enforcement. However, I do have ten changes I would like to see made to our traffic enforcement programs. Some changes revolve around deployment of enforcement, others around its oversight and communication. I want to give our citizens reason to trust that photo enforcement is about safety, not revenue.

THE LONG VERSION

Due to the emotions it evokes, photo enforcement is a very political topic. It gets regular reviews by governments. However, these reviews often lead to little change or else to changes which are not based on evidence.

Currently, our province is publicly in the process of reviewing photo enforcement throughout Alberta. Our City is also involved in a quieter review of its programs. I hope changes that enhance public safety and public trust come out of these reviews. Below are my reasons for wanting change, and specific changes I believe would be helpful.

A Clear Problem with Photo Enforcement

I live near a very busy playground zone which is frequented by photo enforcement trucks. Despite their presence, people often speed through it- some of my neighbours have received multiple fines in this zone. Obviously, enforcement is not enough to slow everyone down.

Our Neighbourhood Association tried to get the City to put in better signs to complement the use of enforcement. Our request was denied. But we were told that Enforcement Services would hear about our safety concerns. This was frustrating for us. It felt like enforcement was the preferred method to control traffic. Some involved felt that the City was more interested in revenue than safety. I don’t think I agree with that assessment, but I can see why it was made. I have many other examples I could give of situations which have made people question the use of photo enforcement.

Photo enforcement causes many people to be angry and distrustful. Whether we agree with the use of photo enforcement or not, we should all be troubled by the disconnect it creates between many people and government. People should be able to trust that any type of enforcement is about safety, not revenue. It is clear to me that this is an area of our city which needs fixing.

But Does Photo Enforcement Work?

I have problems with our implementation of photo enforcement. However: it has changed my driving habits. When I was younger and dumber I sped often. And then I started getting expensive tickets in the mail, and I stopped. I wish that tickets weren’t a big contributor to me always going the speed limit. But in all honestly, they shaped my behaviour dramatically. I’ve talked to many people who have had the same experience.

But anecdotes aren’t enough. When thinking about this issue, I read all the studies I could. I didn’t spend much time reading popular press- most of what I found there was opinion pieces. Instead, I looked at academic, peer reviewed works. Below I am including excerpts from the most relevant studies which I had access to. Overwhelmingly, they agree: photo enforcement reduces drivers’ speed and increases road safety.

Changing How We Use Photo Enforcement

Because of the clear evidence I read, I do think that photo enforcement has a place in our traffic safety programs. However, the way it is currently implemented is broken. Citizens need to be able to trust that it is about preventing injuries and fatalities, not just about generating revenue. Changes are needed.

I believe the following changes will enhance the safety of our roads while decreasing the number of citations handed out by photo enforcement.

1. Deploy More Radar Speed Signs. Sometimes people speed simply because they are not paying attention. Instant feedback rather than a delayed ticket is the best way to slow this type of speeder down. We should use more radar speed signs in town. We should install small ones in the busiest playground and school zones (much like the one on 100 St in the Swanavon school zone). Of course, permanent signs are easy to ignore when they are part of your regular route. We should also make more use of portable speed signs in photo enforcement zones. Right now, the City allows for up to 208 hours of mobile photo enforcement per week. Radar signs should see a similar implementation. We should have a minimum of 3 portable signs out at all times (this would give 252 hours of weekly deployment between 7am and 7pm- that is 20% more time than we are given to mobile photo enforcement). These signs should be moved to different photo enforcement zones on a weekly basis.

2. Invest in signs, crosswalks, and road engineering. We need to do a better job of giving drivers visual cues to slow down. These cues may include larger signs, painted crosswalks, and planted medians. Enforcement should be our last resort to slow people down. We need to invest more energy and money into engineering and education to complement our use of enforcement.

3. Use marked vehicles for 50% of photo enforcement. In its current implementation, automated enforcement is designed to be unobtrusive. The theory is that it is more effective if people do not know where to expect it. There is some merit to this idea. But it also has downsides: drivers do not get a visual reminder that tickets are being handed out. Additionally, seeing a truck hide behind a sign just feels underhanded and sneaky. The academic literature I read discusses the importance of visible enforcement sites (for example, see Kim et al. 2016 below) working in tandem with unobtrusive enforcement. We should not rely solely on unmarked vehicles parked in hiding spots. Half of all of photo enforcement should be undertaken by marked vehicles in plain view.

4. Change the site selection guidelines for photo enforcement. Photo-enforcement sites are currently approved following four guidelines: high-risk locations where conventional enforcement is dangerous, high-collision locations where data shows a high frequency of accidents, high-pedestrian locations, and high-frequency locations where traffic laws are regularly broken. That last guideline is troubling. Having most motorists speed through an area does not necessarily mean that it is dangerous. It could also mean that it has too low of a speed limit. “High-frequency” should be removed from the guidelines. At the same time, the “high-risk” guideline should be expanded to include areas where RCMP and City staff are concerned about the safety of current traffic flow. Habitual speeding should be a factor when assessing the overall safety of an enforcement zone, but it should not be enough to create an enforcement zone in and of itself.

5. Provide more oversight to “illegally” parked enforcement vehicles. One of the biggest complaints I hear about photo enforcement is vehicles being parked outside of usual legal parking zones. Some people are concerned about the safety of an abnormally parked vehicle. Some worry about turf damage. Some are concerned about paths or site lines being blocked. And some just get upset about the sneaky places enforcement vehicles appear. There are areas where it is appropriate and necessary for enforcement to be parked outside of a normal parking spot. However, these locations need to be given more oversight. By default, enforcement vehicles should be limited to parking spots that anyone can use. Enforcement zones where they will be exempted from this requirement should be given Council oversight by having to be approved by the Community Safety Committee.

6. Stop using private contractors. Currently, photo enforcement is undertaken by a private contractor. Many believe the contractor is motivated more by profit than by safety. Whether this perception is accurate or not, it is troubling that so many people have it. I would like to see enforcement be undertaken by City employees. This may cost the City more money than our current arrangement, but I think it is worth it to give the public confidence that enforcement officers have no financial motivations.

Changing How We Oversee and Communicate Photo Enforcement

I’ve spent hours studying this issue, have read everything the City has on its website, and have talked to councilors and city staff. I still feel like I only have a cursory understanding of how photo enforcement is used in Grande Prairie.

Even the best and most just enforcement programs will be seen with anger and distrust if not communicated properly. Part of the anger I hear directed at photo enforcement is due to misinformation or lack of information.

I propose the following changes to our enforcement system to give citizens more reasons to trust it.

7. Make the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee minutes public. This committee is made up of RCMP, city staff, and members of the public. Its mandate is to review the merits and effectiveness of photo enforcement sites. Its minutes and the supporting material it examines should be made public and easy to find.

8. Publish comprehensive data about each enforcement site. The City does publish the approved locations for photo enforcement. However, I would like the public to have more data on each site. This data should answer the following questions: Who requested the site? Why was it requested? How often is photo enforcement present on this site? How many tickets have been issued from it? What was the average speed recorded for tickets at the site? How many tickets have been challenged in court and how many challenges were successful?

9. Share financial information with the public. Some general numbers about our photo enforcement program (such as total revenue collected last year) are posted on the City’s website. However, I would like more specific information made easily accessible. It should be made obvious not only how much revenue was generated by photo enforcement for the City, but also how much was generated for the province and for the contractor.

10. Talk about enforcement publicly. People naturally distrust programs they do not know much about. However, just making information available is not enough. People need to know the information exists and how to access it. City Council and staff need to work hard to communicate our enforcement strategies in person, through traditional media, and on social media. Increased awareness of the presence of enforcement will slow drivers down. Increased knowledge about the reasons and strategies of enforcement will give people less reason to distrust it.

Objections to Photo Radar

I want to address some common objections I hear to photo radar.

  • “It is just a cash crab.” In some sites in some jurisdictions, I agree that this is the case. There are also sites where photo enforcement contributes to public safety. It is impossible for the public to assess the safety versus revenue merits of an enforcement program without adequate information. I want all information to be easily available so that you can see where and how our enforcement program contributes to safety. I also want you to have the information needed to hold Council accountable when photo enforcement practices are not contributing to safety.
  • “It is ridiculous to ticket someone for going three over.” I agree with this objection. However, my understanding is that in Grande Prairie, photo enforcement tickets are not given to anyone going less than 10 km/h over the speed limit. I have heard of “friends of friends” receiving tickets for going slower than that, but I have not talked to anyone who has received that sort of ticket. If you have, please let me know- I’d love to know about it. We certainly should not be giving tickets to people going a tiny amount over the speed limit.
  • “Waiting a few weeks to receive a ticket does nothing to slow you down.” All the studies I have read disagree- just the presence of photo enforcement does slow traffic. See below. If someone is speeding and gets their photo taken today, that isn’t going to slow them down immediately. But they are more likely to go slow a couple of weeks from now once the ticket has been received.
  • “Police are more effective than photo radar.” I absolutely agree with this! Demerits and personal confrontation added to a financial penalty are more effective than a financial penalty by itself. And seeing an officer writing someone else a ticket slows people down more than just knowing photo radar is out there. However, police are expensive. We can have more enforcement presence with photo enforcement. There are also places where it is unsafe for a police officer to ticket people, but a photo setup can be effective and safe. Photo enforcement should not replace live officers. But I think it has a place in supplementing them.
  • “The equipment used is not accurate.” I just have not seen evidence that this is the case. If you have evidence, please let me know- I certainly want to be aware of it and push to have our enforcement strategies reflect any equipment deficiencies.
  • “We need to increase speed limits, not crack down on ridiculously slow ones.” There might be areas in the city where this is true. This is why I want “high-frequency [of violations]” out of the site selection guidelines. However, in this discussion it is important to note that speed limits are not just about limiting the number of accidents- they also limit the consequences of accidents. For example, I have read that a pedestrian struck at 50 km/hour has a 50% chance of survival while one struck at 60 km/hour only has a 10% chance.

So, what do you think? Are you for or against the use of photo radar? Do you agree with the changes I am proposing? Are there any additional changes we should make? Let me know. Contact me, tag me on Facebook, or stop me to chat when you see me in the community.

-Dylan

 

Resources

Currently approved photo radar sites: http://www.cityofgp.com/index.aspx?page=2908

Additional information about Grande Prairie’s current photo radar program: http://www.cityofgp.com/index.aspx?page=1066

 

Academic Sources

Below, I list the most relevant peer-reviewed resources I read on these topics. I include a full citation and a quote or two for each. If you have other studies I should read, please send them to me.

All bolding was added by me to highlight what I feel is the most important information from a study.

The first article I list has great advice for any municipality utilizing photo enforcement. I am posting it first because it seems to be the most important resource I found. I am also posting a large section from it. The rest are in alphabetical order and I am only including short sections.

 

Retting, Richard A. 2010. "Two Decades of Photo Enforcement in the United States: A Brief Summary of Experience and Lessons Learned." ITE Journal 80, no. 11: 20. Supplemental Index, EBSCOhost (accessed April 28, 2017).

Focus on safety: Like all limited traffic safety resources, photo enforcement should be deployed at locations where safety benefits are likely to be realized. Select enforcement sites based on violations, crash histories, and other safety factors; site selection should be determined by government officials and not photo enforcement vendors; select problem corridors as well as "black spots" for targeted enforcement; and compile documentation regarding the site selection process.

Emphasize fairness in program design and operations: It is important that photo enforcement programs be perceived as fair. Ensure governmental control over all major aspects of camera enforcement, including selection of enforcement sites and final say over which photos result in citations; emphasize deterrence through signing and public information; avoid excessive penalties and late fees; provide adequate enforcement tolerance levels; and include a variety of stakeholders in the planning and design of enforcement programs.

Get the engineering right: Prior to implementation camera enforcement, consider engineering measures to reduce persistent traffic violations and crashes. Evaluate yellow signal timing, posted speed limits, and other engineering factors related to driver behavior and camera enforcement.

Avoid the appearance of a revenue motive: Avoid "revenue sharing" methods of vendor payment; provide adequate government funding of camera infrastructure and operations to avoid reliance on fine revenue; post traffic signs alerting drivers to the use of photo enforcement; install supplemental plaques on speed limit signs along enforced routes; for the first few weeks of new camera locations, display portable signs in advance of each deployment; and conduct periodic financial audits.

Anticipate and avoid legal setbacks: Court rulings that result in suspension or termination of photo enforcement reinforce the importance of subjecting program development and details to comprehensive legal review. Legal setbacks have largely been in relation to program control and oversight, and preemption of ordinances by state laws. Photo enforcement planning and implementation efforts should include a broad spectrum of state and local law officials, judges, and others with appropriate legal expertise.

Employ effective communications: Provide adequate publicity of camera enforcement to deter violations; conduct intensive public information and education campaigns well in advance of enforcement, and on an ongoing basis; do not rely entirely on earned (free) media for communications.

Evaluate Program Performance and Outcomes: ASE and RLC programs should incorporate procedures to periodically evaluate program performance and outcomes. These include effects on violations, effects on crashes, and public attitudes. Care must be taken to apply appropriate methodological approaches and statistical procedures. Agencies that lack sufficient research expertise should include analysis of program effects by qualified outside researchers.

Chen, Greg, Jean Wilson, Wayne Meckle, and Peter Cooper. 2000. "Evaluation of photo radar program in British Columbia." Accident Analysis And Prevention 32, 517-526. ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost (accessed May 31, 2017).

“The study revealed a dramatic reduction of speed at photo radar deployment sites. A reduction of 2.4 km/h in mean speed was also observed at selected monitoring sites where enforcement was not likely to be present. The reduction of speed was accompanied by a decrease in collisions, injuries and fatalities. The analysis found a 25% reduction in daytime unsafe speed related collisions, an 11% reduction in daytime traffic collision victims carried by ambulances and a 17% reduction in daytime traffic collision fatalities.”

Chen, Greg, Wayne Meckle, and Jean Wilson. 2002. "Speed and safety effect of photo radar enforcement on a highway corridor in British Columbia." Accident Analysis And Prevention 34, 129-138. ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost (accessed May 12, 2017).

The study found a 2.8-km/h reduction in mean speed and a 0.5-km/h reduction in speed standard deviation at a monitoring site 2 km south of the treatment area. Corresponding to speed reduction, the study revealed a 14%±11% reduction in expected collisions at the PRP locations, a 19%±10% reduction at the non-PRP locations, and a 16%±7% reduction along the study corridor as a whole. No evidence was found for a localized effect in a 2-km range of the photo radar direct influence area, over and above those at the interleaving non-PRP locations. The results support the hypothesis of a distance spillover effect — that the program not only improved safety at the PRP locations, but along the entire enforcement corridor as well. It suggests that the unpredictable nature of the deployments lead drivers to modify their behavior along the length of the corridor because they could not discern ‘safe’ from ‘unsafe’ segments.

Chen, Greg. (2005) Safety and Economic Impacts of Photo Radar Program, Traffic Injury Prevention, 6:4, 299-307, DOI: 10.1080/15389580500253729

“The program was successful in reducing fatal and injury collisions, with an estimated net economic benefit of approximately C$114 million per year. These results are robust to all plausible scenarios tested except for major errors in overestimating collision reductions. From the sponsoring insurance corporation’s perspective, photo radar created base-case net savings of approximately C$38 million per year. The program produced a net savings of at least C$21.8 million per year, even under the least favorable assumptions.”

“[In Washington D.C.] The number of speeding vehicles declined after the implementation of the program. In photo radar enforcement zones, the proportion of speeding vehicles dropped from more than 30 percent to 4 percent. The reduction in aggressive driving was followed by improved traffic safety. In the three years of photo radar operation, traffic fatalities in which speeding was the primary cause have been reduced by 50 percent (Ramsey, 2005).”

Ferrara, I., and Missios, P. C. "Effective speed enforcement and photo radar: Evidence from Australia." International Journal of Transport Economics / Rivista internazionale di economia dei trasporti, 2001., 373, JSTOR Journals, EBSCOhost (accessed May 23, 2017).

Raw data from Victoria, Australia, suggest that photo radar has significantly reduced both fatalities and collisions after its introduction in 1990, and controlling for other factors, including proxies for weather conditions and drunken driving, we find that photo radar can indeed be an effective road safety device.

Goldenbeld, Charles, and Ingrid van Schagen. 2005. "The effects of speed enforcement with mobile radar on speed and accidents. An evaluation study on rural roads in the Dutch province Friesland." Accident Analysis And Prevention 37, 1135-1144. ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost (accessed May 12, 2017).

“The effects of targeted speed enforcement on speed and road accidents were assessed… the enforcement project showed a significant decrease in mean speed and the percentage speed limit violators over time… There were similar decreases in speeding at both the enforced roads and at the nearby comparison roads that were not subjected to the targeted speed enforcement project… The best estimate for the safety effect of the enforcement project is a reduction of 21% in both the number of injury accidents and the number of serious casualties.”

Hughes, B.P., A. Anund, and T. Falkmer. "A comprehensive conceptual framework for road safety strategies." Accident Analysis And Prevention 90, (May 1, 2016): 13-28. ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost (accessed May 3, 2017).

“More than 90% of the strategies analyzed included a leadership approach, integration, implementation, participation, funding, investment, regulation, enforcement, behaviour change, skills, expertise and capability, innovation, research, standards and guidelines. Other policy tools including financial incentives, pricing, subsidies, industry change, competition and consumer choice were less commonly used, while taxes, fees and charges were only identified in three strategies.”

“The breadth or detail of policy tools applied to improve individual components do not describe the effectiveness of any strategy, as a whole, to achieve the outcomes intended. It is possible for a strategy to employ a narrow range of policy tools across a few components if the tools are effective and sufficient resources are applied to substantially improve the components. It is possible that the effectiveness of any strategy has as much to do with the resources applied in its implementation, as it has to do with the level of sophistication of any strategy. That is, the success of recent road safety has been dependent on the level effort (such as the amount of enforcement as an example) rather than the quality of the strategy itself.”

Kim, Amy Miyoung, et al. "Operating a mobile photo radar enforcement program: A framework for site selection, resource allocation, scheduling, and evaluation." Case Studies On Transport Policy 4, (September 1, 2016): 218-229. ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost (accessed May 24, 2017).

“In France, it was found that with MPRE, fatal and nonfatal collisions were reduced by 21% and 26%, respectively (Carnis and Blais, 2013). In the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, collisions at locations with mobile photo enforcement were observed to have dropped by an average of 10%; in addition, the mean, median, and 85th percentile speeds measured at enforcement locations were observed to have decreased by at least 0.5 mph (Cunningham et al., 2008). In Washington D.C., the mean speeds of traffic at enforced locations decreased by 14%, with an 82% reduction in the number of vehicles exceeding the speed limit by 10 mph (16.1 kph) (Retting and Farmer, 2003). In British Columbia, Canada, speed-related collisions were observed to decline 25% at enforced locations (Chen et al., 2002). In Victoria, Australia, a 22% reduction in all collisions was observed, while the number of injury collisions fell by 38% (Coleman and Paniati, 1995).”

“The effectiveness of a MPRE program is the outcome of unavoidability, immediacy, and punishment severity (Carnis and Blais, 2013; Zaal, 1994)… General deterrence is also attributed to MPRE as well as general dangerous driving education and awareness campaigns. Specific deterrence is the phenomenon where a driver experiences detection and punishment firsthand (Tay and Barros, 2011). One study suggests that because general deterrence is more prominent than specific deterrence, enforcement should primarily aim at achieving greater general deterrence. This can be achieved by focusing on high-risk time periods and locations, using a mix of highly visible and less visible forms of enforcement to improve enforcement publicity and unpredictability, and implementing a plan for long-term enforcement activity (Keall et al., 2001).”

Lee, Yongdoo, Zongzhi Li, Shengrui Zhang, Arash M. Roshandeh, Harshingar Patel, and Yi Liu. 2014. "Safety impacts of red light running photo enforcement at urban signalized intersections." Journal Of Traffic And Transportation Engineering (English Edition) 1, 309-324. ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost (accessed May 23, 2017).

“It is revealed that the use of red light running photo enforcement on the whole is positive, as demonstrated by reductions in all types of fatal crashes by 4–48 percent, and injury-related angle crashes by 1 percent. However, it slightly raises PDO [Property Damage Only]-related angle crashes and moderately increases injury and PDO related rear-end crashes. The safety effectiveness of red light running photo enforcement is sensitive to intersection location.”

Li, Ran, et al. "Relationship between road safety and mobile photo enforcement performance indicators: A case study of the city of Edmonton." Journal Of Transportation Safety & Security 9, no. 2 (April 2017): 195-215. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed May 12, 2017).

The results show that as the number of enforced sites and issued tickets increased, the number of speed-related collisions decreased. Also, as the average check length decreased, a greater reduction of speed-related collisions was observed. These results indicate that collision reductions were associated with a MPE program that promoted: higher spatial coverage (i.e., more enforceable locations), more frequent checks (i.e., shorter average check length), and more issued tickets. The marginal effects of enforcing 100 sites and issuing 10,000 tickets per month were calculated to be 47 and 140 fewer speed-related collisions, respectively.

Martinez, Kristie L. Hebert, and Bryan E. Porter. 2006. "Characterizing red light runners following implementation of a photo enforcement program." Accident Analysis And Prevention 38, 862-870. ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost (accessed May 31, 2017).

“As in earlier research (Retting et al., 199a,b), the present study found photo red cameras decreased the number of red light runners. Each time camera presence was entered into a model, it was a significant predictor of red light running. Sites without cameras were more likely to have red light runners than sites with cameras… Further, the camera spillover effect was observed at same-city control sites where red light running rates mirrored those of the camera sites… We demonstrated cameras effect all red ight runners equally while reducing red light running.”

Porter, Bryan E. Johnson, Kristie L. Bland, Johnnie F. 2012. “Turning off the cameras: Red light running characteristics and rates after photo enforcement legislation expired.” Accident Analysis And Prevention 50, 1104-1111. ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost (accessed May 6, 2017)

“Within a few months of cameras going dark, red light running rates had increased nearly three times the rate above the few months prior to the sunset.Within a year that rate was 4 times higher… all risk reductions earned with automated enforcement had been lost within one year [of automated enforcement being removed].

Vanlaar, Ward, Robyn Robertson, and Kyla Marcoux. 2014. "An evaluation of Winnipeg's photo enforcement safety program: Results of time series analyses and an intersection camera experiment." Accident Analysis And Prevention 62, 238-247. ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost (accessed May 12, 2017).

“the data also suggest that photo enforcement may be more effective in preventing speeding violations in general (at least 1 km/h over the speed limit) but is perhaps less effective in preventing serious speeding violations (at least 13 km/h over the speed limit). One possible explanation to consider is that serious speeding violations are more commonly committed by high-risk drivers. It is known that many traffic safety measures are less effective with such high-risk drivers because they are less amenable to changing their behavior (Robertson et al., 2010; Simpson et al., 2004).”

Yang, C.Y. David, and Wassim G. Najm. 2007. "Examining driver behavior using data gathered from red light photo enforcement cameras." Journal Of Safety Research 38, 311-321. ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost (accessed May 31, 2017).

Results Key findings based on Sacramento's red light violation records include: (a) younger drivers showed a higher tendency of running the red light and were more likely to commit such a violation at speeds above the posted speed limit; (b) off-peak time period between 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. had lower violation counts, but red light violators in this time frame had a higher propensity of racing through intersections at high speeds; (c) also during the time period between 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., violators showed a higher probability of entering intersections two or more seconds after the onset of red light; and (d) violators were less likely to cross high traffic-volume intersections with speeds greater than the posted speed limit.

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