Smile, you’re on camera: more Saskatoon photo radar looms

Photo radar could be installed in more school zones and along Circle Drive in the near future after a Saskatoon city council committee endorsed a request to SGI for more speed cameras.

Currently, the city moves one photo radar camera among five school zones and another rotates around five locations on Circle Drive.

City councillors on the transportation committee voted unanimously Monday in favour of asking SGI for two new cameras to rotate among those 10 spots.

They also approved an administration recommendation to ask SGI in September to allow the designation of eight new school zones for photo radar eligibility, and another two cameras to rotate among those eight zones.

City staff also plan to work with Saskatoon police to assess other high-speed locations and problem areas on arterial roads throughout 2019 for photo radar eligibility. They would then request that SGI add the assessed locations to the list of spots for speed cameras.

The city has to prove to SGI there are speeding issues on a road before photo radar is approved.

Saskatoon has to ask SGI because the city isn’t allowed to operate photo radar on its own due to provincial laws.

The city is also getting a smaller cut of the revenues from photo radar tickets. During SGI’s pilot project, municipalities received 34 per cent of the cash generated by the program. When photo radar was made permanent in the fall, that share was reduced to 10 per cent.

“I am not happy that we’re going to see a huge reduction,” Coun. Bev Dubois said about the funding drop. “But how can I say no to something that is working?”

A report submitted to council suggested if no new photo radar locations were added, the funding formula change would drop city revenues from the program by 70 per cent — from $613,000 annually to $183,900 annually.

However, Mayor Charlie Clark stressed the motivation to ask for more speed cameras isn’t necessarily to boost revenue.

“The better the cameras work, the less revenue you get because less people are speeding as a result,” he said. “And that’s the goal.”

Since photo radar was installed, speeds in school zones and on Circle Drive have decreased according to city statistics. The mayor cited that the “85th-percentile speed” — meaning 85 per cent of drivers are at or below and 15 per cent are above — on Circle Drive dropped from 109 kilometres per hour to 92 km/h.

The plan to ask SGI for more cameras still has to be approved by a full city council vote on March 25.