 Custom Search  How Many Photo Tickets Will It Take Before You Fight Back? GPS is 100% Legal and Pays For Itself. Click Here To Learn More. The Hourglass EffectThe best way without a doubt to Prevent Tickets is to drive safely and within the laws governing your jurisdiction. This is not to say that people who get tickets are unlawful and driving unsafely. In fact a high majority of tickets are issued to Good Drivers who have simply made a mistake because of a distraction or unfamiliarity of the area they are driving in. Many drivers in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada, it appears, get caught in an hour glass effect. This is where they are driving on a multi lane, higher speed stretch of roadway and then crammed into a double lane, lower speed zone and then shot out the other end into a higher speed zone. It appears the City has chosen to capitalize on this type of poor infrastructure that frustrates drivers simply trying to get from one location to another in a decent amount of time. A classic example is laid out on this map. View Larger Map The blue line is Route 90, which is a major route that carries commuter and truck traffic North and South through the City. It connects two industrial zones and the Airport and is one of Winnipeg's busiest routes. Right in the middle of this route is a narrow stretch that goes through a residential area. Although it is still 2 lanes each way, separated by a grassed median and completely straight, the speed is reduced down to 50 kph. In the middle of this stretch, at the intersection of Corydon, is the City's second best performing intersection camera. So far this year, the tickets issued from this camera total 3008, (43- Red light & 2965 speeding). Now the funny thing is that the 2 other cameras on this stretch are the two worst producing intersection cameras in the City, issuing to date this year only 5 tickets total between them, 3 speeding and 2 red lights. The speed zones for both of them are higher, the northern one at 70kph and the southern one at 80 kph. Since I have the personal experience of numerous hours of speed enforcement on this stretch I can make a confident suggestion that 60-70% of the tickets being issued by this camera in the hourglass are in the 11-15 kph range over the 50 kph limit. Leaving about 25-35% at 16-25kph over and 5% at best being over 25 kph. Without going into detail, we did not ticket a portion of those speed ranges, can you guess which? This set up is a classic example of how photo enforcement feeds itself off of good drivers only going a small amount over an already low threshold. These are not people driving dangerously or creating a hazard. There has been discussion for numerous years about making this stretch a corridor to be able to allow traffic to flow faster because the way it is now really is a joke. Just ask any trucker trying to get from one end to the other. Why improve the infrastructure though when it's bringing in thousands of tickets a year. 2007- 5712 (5559 speeders/153 red lights). 2006- 9643 (9481/162) 2005- 6490 (6391/99) 2004- 10407 (10253/154) 2003- 7419 (7345/74) Total tickets since 2003 at Route 90/Corydon = 42,679 Total for the other two cameras together since 2004 is 2508.
In 2003, the first year a camera was installed at Century and Silver (the camera to the north), there were 4319 tickets issued from that camera alone. The difference?? The posted speed was 60 kph, 10 lower then it is now! At the lower speed in the first year there were more tickets issued from that camera then the total of it and the one at Kenaston/McGillvary over a 4 year period combined. So.....higher speeds = less speeders? Wow could that mean if there were longer ambers, there would be less red light runners? Apparently so.....Read this, Another City Dumps Red Light Cameras. Safer Streets? Apparently in the high speed zones. Also of note, the only intersection cameras to break 1000 tickets this year to date are the ones in the 50kph zones.
(Stats courtesy of the City of Winnipeg Safer Streets Site, current up to June 30th at time of writing.) Check them out yourself at this link.
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