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Regina drivers who turn right at red lights without stopping will soon get hit in the wallet.
On Monday, the city announced that its Red Light Safety Program will be expanded to help ensure drivers come to a full stop at red lights before turning right.
Carolyn Kalim, the city’s manager of traffic engineering, said safety is a top priority.
“We hope to reduce the collisions that are happening at our intersections and, in particular, protect vulnerable road users such as our pedestrians that are crossing,” Kalim told reporters on Monday.
The expansion is set to take effect on Thursday at the three locations where cameras are already installed: Albert Street and Saskatchewan Drive; Albert Street and Parliament Avenue; and Dewdney Avenue and Lewvan Drive.
Kalim said cameras were placed at those locations based on the frequency of right-angle collisions.
“As we expand, we’re keeping the cameras in the same location and just allowing them to use more of the software that exists to be able to also enforce that rolling right turn movement,” she said.
Drivers who violate the rule will be issued a warning notice for the first two months, but starting on April 1 the rule will be enforced with $230 tickets.
Kalim said the goal is changing the behaviour of drivers and reducing the number of infractions rather than generating more revenue for the city through fines.
“If we issue zero tickets, we’ll consider that a success, because what we ultimately want to do is actually change that behaviour and reduce that risk,” Kalim said.
It’s yet to be seen how fast a driver would have to roll through the red light to trigger the cameras. Kalim said the city is looking at industry standards to ensure that it’s setting the right threshold for detecting violations.
“Once we have that threshold set, all of the tickets that are going to be flagged under the automated protocol will go to (the Regina Police Service) for some review to ensure that it truly is an infraction,” Kalim said.
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SGI spokesperson Tyler McMurchy told reporters on Monday that the cameras have already reduced right-angle collisions in Regina
SGI spokesperson Tyler McMurchy said red light cameras reduce the number of collisions at intersections. (Daniel Reech/980 CJME)
“A number of studies have shown that that is, in fact, what they do,” McMurchy said. “They reduce the number of collisions, particularly T-bone collisions, at intersections, which can obviously be quite significant not only in terms of property damage, but can lead to injuries.”
McMurchy cited a 2014 report on the program which showed that collisions causing injuries were reduced by 26 per cent.
The excerpt he shared said the findings were consistent with analyses done in other jurisdictions.