Photo radar assholes coming to the land where they can't hide behind geographic features

The wondrous Saskatchewan licence plate exemption for Alberta photo radar seems to be a thing of the past. Saskatchwan has started a pilot project to bring the anti-freedom devices east of Lloydminster.

SGI recorded 21,677 speeding violations across the province during December. Saskatoon recorded 3,961 speeders, Regina recorded 6,117 and Moose Jaw was responsible for 5,058 violations. The two highway locations nabbed 6,541 speeders.

If the violations resulted in fines, the minimum amount the province would net would be $2,882,710, based on the minimum amount of the tickets issued. Instead, warning letters are being sent out until Feb. 8.

A base fine for speeding is $110, plus $1 for every kilometre per hour over the 90 kilometre-per-hour limit. In school zones, the fine is increased to $190 plus $2 for every kilometre-per-hour over the posted limit.

Driving even a single kilometre an hour above the posted speed limit in a school zone could result in a ticket of up to $192.

If a ticket was mailed to the fastest speeder in the province — that dubious honour went to a driver going 186 km/h in Saskatoon on Circle Drive — they would be on the hook for $206.

So much nonsense condensed into just a couple short paragraphs. Let's start at the top: "speeding violations" is such a nonsense phrase that it should have even been allowed into the story, and the lazy investigation of authors Chris Morin & Emma Graney should justify their immediate dismissal. How many drivers were there? What percentage of drivers does this 21,677 make up? I'm guessing it was probably a pretty high number. As discussed many a time before, the vast majority of drivers drive at perfectly acceptable speeds that bear little resemblance to what some idiot cop or civil servant believes to be acceptable. As a result, if 21,000 people were all in "speeding violations" at roughly the same speed, it's simply an obvious reveal that the speed limits are set artificially low: usually by the same mess of corrupt cops and sleazy politicians who are so anxious to collect the revenues covered in the second paragraph.

In the third paragraph we learn the most outlandish aspect of the whole thing: we're talking about a 90km/hr limit on a highway. Look, I know that the shape of Saskabush roadways means that you take your life in your own hands if you break 75 in a rural area, but seriously? The natural speed limit on most highways is in the neighbourhood of 130km/hr (160km/hr on 4-lane roads). This goes back to what we suspected in the beginning, that these "limits" being violated are unacceptably low.

That Saskatchewan is thinking of single kilometre penalties in school zones is ridiculous times a thousand. School zones are some of the worse offenders for limits being set far too low over far too large an area encompassing far too much time. Add into that the fact that photo radar units have confirmed accuracy issues.

Finally we get to the "worst driver in the universe" category, a guy driving 186km/hr on Circle Drive in Saskatoon. Here's a picture of Circle Drive in Saskatoon:

I probably wouldn't go 190 on this road, particularly in December, but in the summer I'd have no problem doing 140. At this speed I'll see lots of rule-following morons like Brian LaBelle or Chris Neuman driving 50km/hr slower than me, so why would I be bothered when the reverse is true?

All of the school zone speeding violations — 4,712 of them, in the case of Regina — happened at a single school in each city.

SGI officials won’t say which schools those were, though, calling it an issue of public safety.

“We don’t want people to know where the camera is, or where it was,” says spokeswoman Kelley Brinkworth.

Fortunately, Kelley Brinkworth isn't nearly as smart as Regina Post photographer Don Healy, who took the photo which accompanied the article: it showed the camera system setup on Agyle Street in Regina, which is near Archbishop M.C. O’Neill High School.

Although the fastest speed recorded by the cameras on Circle Drive in Saskatoon, it was those traveling past the speed camera at the Trans-Canada and 9th Avenue in Moose Jaw who were, by far, the most likely to be speeding on a highway (5.73 per cent were in violation of the limit).

The camera there also recorded the most number of drivers exceeding the posted limit by more than 30 km/h.

Finally we get some numbers. Actually the 6% violations seem rather low. That doesn't jive with any research on the topic, so I'm wondering if this has already factored in the "grace limit" that for years kept violations between 1 and 13 km/hr off the books in Alberta: photo radar operators know that if they go after such speeders and lose too often in court, the precedent will prevent them from ever collecting another dime.

As usual in this, of course, you get some power-hungry cop mad as hell that we aren't ignoring a silly law that doesn't do what he thinks it does.

Sgt. Cliff Froehlich with the Moose Jaw Police was surprised “that people aren’t paying attention to the sign or adhering to the limit.”

Why so surprised? Your limits have serious problems. It's why we ignore them. Make new limits, we ignore those too.