Automated speed enforcement returning to Camrose next month

The city of Camrose is reactivating its speed-on-green cameras at a single intersection after receiving an exemption from a provincial ban.

For months, no speedsters have been ticketed for dashing through Camrose’s busiest intersection – but that’s about to change.

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The city has received permission from the province to resume automated traffic enforcement (ATE) of east and westbound traffic speeds at 68 Street and 48 Avenue, a connector for Highway 13.

The change will take place Oct. 10.

“The cameras have always been on, monitoring, traffic, monitoring speed,” Camrose Police Service chief Dean LaGrange told CTV News Edmonton in a recent interview.

“We just don’t process any violations.”

The data gathered since the province’s ATE restrictions went into effect April 1 show a consistent uptick in traffic violations like red-light running and speeding, the city says. The intersection’s collision rate is on track to experience a 133-per cent increase and a 150-per cent increase in injury collisions over 2024.

The intersection has had the highest number of total and injury-resulting collisions in each of the past 10 years in the city, with the total collision rate being four times higher than other comparable intersections. Cameras were installed in 2020, after which overall collisions fell 27 per cent.

Camrose Police Service used this data to prove to the province that intersection safety devices (ISDs) like red light and speed-on-green cameras improve road safety and earn an exemption from the provincial rules.

“I just hope it works. It’s nice that we’ve had the inroads to reinstitute it, and it’s just trying to make everybody safe. That’s all we’re trying to do. We’re not trying to make a cash cow out of it,” Mayor PJ Stasko said.

Calgary has received permission to reinstate automated speed enforcement at three intersections.

A spokesperson confirmed Edmonton is working on applications for exemptions as well, and noted automated enforcement is a “well-established and proven tool” in making roads safer, but would not say which intersections or when the application would be submitted. They also noted the province’s support is “critical in combatting the concerning rise in speeding and serious crashes in our city.”

Starting April 1, Alberta prohibited photo radar on all provincial highways and connector roads, except in school, playground and construction zones, in response to concern that photo radar was being used by municipalities as a cash cow. It also limited use of cameras at intersections to capturing red-light infractions only. Applications to the Director of Law Enforcement Standards and Audits to use automated enforcement must include collision data that proves the necessity of cameras at a site and a demonstrated lack of alternatives.

Only the exemptions in Camrose and Calgary have been granted, the Public Safety and Emergency Services Ministry confirmed.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg