Montreal City Weblog

Kate 11:43 on 2023-01-07 Permalink Reply  

• mare 16:33 on 2023-01-07 Permalink

  Amazing because there are only a handful of them in Montreal. And there are big signs indicating there is one, so it’s not like you can colour yourself surprised if you get a speeding ticket. There are many (sections of) roads where there’s a 30 km/h limit and where 95% of drivers drive at least 10 km/h too fast. If there were speed cameras installed they could collect millions just there. But most speed limit signs are just for road decoration, enforcement is not a priority. Traffic law enforcement as a whole is not a big priority, cops have more importantly things to do, catching bad guys. That enforcement of traffic laws could *prevent* collisions, injuries and deaths is a novel concept.
  (The number of cars with obscured or damaged license plates is also astounding. In Europe that would get you stopped and ticketed, because you evade getting a speeding, red light or parking ticket, that are all generated automatically with cameras and number plate detection.)

• Ephraim 16:40 on 2023-01-07 Permalink

  Basically random tickets. 94723 tickets of about $150 on 4.2M citizens, so about $3.40 per Montrealer per year. And this does not include any of the costs involved… the police to view the video and issue the ticket, the court time, the defender, the equipment, the maintenance. This is a GROSS amount, what is the real NET amount of tax? Is this really worth it? I’m doubtful this whole exercise is actually worth anything because for the most part it just calms traffic around the actual photo radar installation. Does it really make our roads safer? Where are those statistics? What are we getting for the $14M in random tickets? We could design better traffic calming that would infuriate random citizens and ensure that traffic is still moving. In fact, I wonder how many accidents were caused by people slowing when they saw the warning signs and/or saw the cameras and used their brakes suddenly.

  Why do newspapers forget to answer so many of the important questions? We don’t need GROSS amounts, we need NET amounts? What is this really doing and is it really bringing in any real benefit. Bring in the statisticians and the economists… we need answers

• Ephraim 16:53 on 2023-01-07 Permalink

  @mare – You expect police to actually stop someone and hand them a ticket? Have you recently seen a policeman ticket a vehicle (car, truck, motorcycle), a pedestrian or a bike? And getting people to drive at 30 km/h isn’t realistic. The city knows that. What we really need is to get people stopped for doing the most stupid things…. speeding near a school, passing a school bus, driving in the wrong direction on a roadway, parking/stopping in a handicapped permitted parking spot. The police need to be consistent and stop each and every single time.

  We also need them to stop and give a warning for people who have lights not working on their cars, plates not clearly visible, etc. In this case, we should have a quick form. Just write down the tag number, cross check the VIN number and hand them the ticket. 2 minutes MAX. The form should be a warning giving you 72 hours to fix the vehicle and report back to the police with consequences if you don’t. But take the burden off the cop on the beat and move it to the station and citizen. Police stops take too long for everyone involved

• DeWolf 18:52 on 2023-01-07 Permalink

  Going to Melbourne was an eye-opener for me because everyone there follows the speed limit religiously, because there are so many photo radars, you will definitely get a ticket if you speed. Sure enough, I got home to find that a $250 ticket had been mailed to me for going 108 km/h in a 100 zone on a highway just outside the city. By North American standards, that sounds like a ridiculously large fine for barely breaking the limit, but it obviously works, because the quality of driving in and around Melbourne was way higher than it is here.