Photo radar in Quebec

[Regular Guy]

About a dozen years ago, photo radar was introduced in southern Ontario & was a huge financial success. However, politicians & off-duty cops began receiving speeding tickets through the mail & since they couldn't talk their way out of a fine like they were used to doing, they lobbied the politicians & cancelling photo radar was the first thing the Mike Harris PC government did when they came into power in Ontario, as they had promised to do.

It's a cash-grab.

Of course it's a cash grab! You want to strip mine the public? Just present your rationale as a "motherhood" issue and all the sanctimonious holier than thou types will scream for whatever you're pushing.

Some scams go over better than others. The last piece of idiocy in Ontario was the campaign to issue tickets for those going through a yellow light. A lot of tickets were issued but making it stick in court was a disaster. Don't hear anything at all about it these days. O well, they can't all be winners. Back to the drawing board on that one I guess.

One's first impression is to question whether the geniuses who come up with this stuff think we all just fell off the turnip truck until you realize that as Canadians we rarely challenge anything to the point of abolishment. Once they clicked into the fact that it wasn't necessary for common sense to prevail then the rest was easy. And it's not only government at all levels into this mindset. Just check any outfit with a virtual monopoly on what they provide, credit card companies, utilities, chartered banks. Just check out this website started by a consortium backed by over 200,000 small businesses across Canada:

http://www.stopstickingittous.com/

Remember that famous quote by Edmind Burke: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." I don't know if this qualifies as evil but anything that involves picking my pocket just can't be good.

 

[metoo4]

These locations will be advertized by signs and it will clearly be made public. As long as it's in the open, it's still an annoyance but the money grab trickery doesn't hold water.

 

[Regular Guy]

These locations will be advertized by signs and it will clearly be made public. As long as it's in the open, it's still an annoyance but the money grab trickery doesn't hold water.

Well I would be willing to bet a steak dinner that every one of those cameras will have paid for themselves, signs included, and show a profit before the year is out. Just as people become "houseblind" to defects in their houses that guests readily pick up on, people will, after awhile, look straight at those signs without really seeing them. And you can bet the rent money that the signs wont have flashing lights on them.
Now it may be true that there will be some deterrence but I wonder how many people are guilty of transgressions due to quirks in their nature and may just be incorrigible or are victims of the context within their cars at that moment(i.e. fighting kids in the back seat). So that leaves us with considering two possibilities to address the issue. Which course or strategy is the most productive in dealing with human failings:

1. Smack them over the head with a fine? (That'll l'arn 'em!)
or
2. Design traffic systems of flow in the future to eliminate the issue.
Clearly there is some debate yet to be for choice number one. Choice two stands on its own merits and is foolproof. Whether it is practical or not remains to be seen but that does not take away from the issue as to how effective the cameras really are and to what extent city officials are cognizant of that fact.

 

[hormone]

I'm actually ok with them!

I know it's easy to make it sound like a money grab... but:

In France, they have the same thing. All the radars are "advertized" by a sign some hundred feet before, so you have plenty of time to slow down. People also yelled at money grab... But low and behold, traffic accidents and injuries decreased in the areas where the radars had been installed. People did slow down. That is the main reason to put such a radar in a particular spot. It is supposed to be because a particular area is deemed at higher risk for accidents. Cutting down the speed--and improving driver behaviour-- in that area helps!

People don't slow down simply because there have been too many accidents in one area. Of course not. Don't we all drive better than the other person? And since I'll all know where the radars are, my chances of getting a ticket should be close to zero whenever I am in the city!