Automated speed cameras coming to B.C. roads this summer

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If you’re caught speeding through one of 35 B.C. intersections — almost all of which are in the Lower Mainland — you could soon automatically be issued a ticket.

The province will issue tickets to those travelling “well over” over the posted speed limit, although there’s no word on the speed threshold that will trigger the cameras.

The B.C. government says starting this summer, new warning signs and technology using previously installed red light cameras will be brought in. They will catch speeders, regardless of whether the light is red, yellow or green at the time.

The intersections were selected (full list below) following an analysis of speeding frequency at 140 intersections. The province says between 2012 and 2016, an average of 10,500 cars went through, going at least 30 km/h over the posted speed limit.

Ian Tootill with driver advocacy group SENSE BC feels the public will rebel against this as it once did against photo radar. “My general feeling about the whole thing is the majority of drivers don’t want this kind of law enforcement — don’t agree with the unfairness involved in traffic cameras imposing de facto convictions.”

“It’s up to the individual to prove innocence versus up to the state to prove guilt. This is the kind of nanny state that people in this province just don’t like,” he added.

Last year, the province distanced the technology upgrades from the previous photo radar program.

“This approach is more transparent than the provincial photo radar program that ended in 2001,” read a news release in March, 2018. “It used unmarked vans in random locations, issued tickets at low speeding thresholds and tied up police resources with two officers staffing each van.”

RELATED: Province to upgrade red light cameras to catch ‘fastest vehicles’

Tootill feels the technology can make mistakes and it won’t necessarily change driver behaviour.

“The reason that we like to have live police officers out there is so people that are reckless in their driving habits can be apprehended immediately and they can be dealt with. This system just doesn’t do that.”

He expects this will be a “political football.”

“We’ve already learned in the past that people in British Columbia do not want this kind of enforcement. Anybody that imposes it, at this point in time, does so at their political peril.”

“I’m an experienced driver. I consider myself pretty good and I adhere to the laws, for the most part. But I’m really nervous when I go through intersections and I see those cameras,” he added.

The province says speed is “one of the top contributing factors in casualty crashes” at these intersections. It adds there was a combined total of more than 11,500 collisions every year.

Locations of automated speed cameras:

Abbotsford:

Route 11 at Lonzo Road

Burnaby:

Kingsway at Boundary Road
Kingsway at Royal Oak Avenue
Willingdon at Deer Lake

Coquitlam:

Barnet Highway at Mariner Way

Delta:

Nordel Way at 84th Avenue

Kelowna:

Harvey Avenue at Cooper Road
Highway 97 North at Banks Road

Langley:

200th Street at 64th Avenue
Route 10 at Fraser Highway

Maple Ridge:

Lougheed Highway at 207th Avenue

Nanaimo:

Island Highway at Aulds Road

North Vancouver:

Marine Drive at Capilano Road

Pitt Meadows:

Lougheed Highway at Old Dewdney Trunk Road

Port Coquitlam:

Lougheed Highway at Shaughnessy Street

Richmond:

Garden City Road at Cambie Road

Surrey:

128th Street at 88th Avenue
152nd Street at 96th Avenue
152nd Street at King George Boulevard
64th Avenue at 152nd Street
96th Avenue at 132nd Street
King George Boulevard at 104th Avenue
King George Boulevard at 80th Avenue

Vancouver:

Boundary Road at East 49th Avenue
East Hastings Street at Main Street
East Hastings Street at Renfrew Street
Grandview Highway at Rupert Street
Granville Street at West King Edward Avenue
Kingsway at Joyce Street
Kingsway at Victoria Drive
Knight Street at East 33rd Avenue
Oak Street at West 57th Avenue
Oak Street at West 70th Avenue
Southeast Marine Drive at Kerr Street
West Georgia Street at Cardero Street

 – With files from Martin MacMahon and Lasia Kretzel