Cameras that will automatically send out speeding tickets are coming to 35 intersections across B.C., including one in Nanaimo.
The provincial government announced Tuesday that most of the intersections soon to get the automated speed-detection systems are located through the Lower Mainland, with as many as 12 in Vancouver.
A camera will be installed at the old Island Highway at Aulds Road in Nanaimo, marking the sole intersection on Vancouver Island for the program.
In Langley, cameras will be installed at 200th Street at 64th Avenue and Route 10 at Fraser Highway.
The Ministry of Public Safety analyzed speed and crash data from the 140 intersections that currently have red-light cameras, which are set to monitor speed but do not have the automation to send out tickets.
Here are the 35 intersections getting speed-detection tech. The cameras will trigger based off vehicles driving "well over" the listed limit, take vehicle registration info and a ticket will be sent in the mail. 140 intersections got red-light cameras in Aug. @BlackPressMedia pic.twitter.com/lFEiXSiXYB
— Ashley Wadhwani (@ashwadhwani) May 7, 2019
According to the collected data, 10,500 vehicles were caught going at least 30 kilometres per hour over the posted speed limit each year between 2012 and 2016.
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“We have a record number of crashes happening – more than 900 a day in our province – and about 60 per cent of the crashes on our roads are at intersections,” Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said in a statement.
“We’ve taken time to systematically pinpoint the locations linked to crashes and dangerous speeds that are best suited to safely catching, ticketing and changing the behaviours of those who cause carnage on B.C. roads.”
The new cameras will register the speed of every vehicle driving through the 35 intersections – including during green lights – and ticket the registered owners of vehicles that go beyond the listed speed limit.
To discourage high speeds, Farnworth said that government nor police will disclose the speed threshold that triggers the new cameras.
Warning signs will be setup at the selected intersections this summer.
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The latest speed detection systems follow the province’s phase in of red-light cameras in August 2018.
Those cameras operate 24-7, and can ticket drivers that run red lights. Farnworth found himself defending the system after it was compared to photo radar, a program that ended in 2001 and involved cameras detecting speeders in unmarked vans.
At the time, a Research Co. poll found that 70 per cent of British Columbians supported red light cameras.
The ministry has not detailed any plans to expand red-light cameras, or if it will be adding more speed-detection systems at this time.
@ashwadhwani
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