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Province starts testing speed cameras in Surrey intersections

Surrey will have seven cameras that will ticket speeding drivers – even if light is green
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“Speed & red light camera” signs have been installed at the intersection of 152nd Street and 64th Avenue. The intersection is one of several in the province slated for upgrades to technology that will include automatic ticketing for drivers speeding through red, yellow or green lights. (Photo: Lauren Collins)

Speed and red light cameras and signs have been installed at some Surrey intersections, following the province’s announcement earlier this year to ticket speeding drivers – even when going through a green light.

In May, the provincial government announced that 35 safety intersection cameras would be “tweaked to slow the worst leadfoots.” Of those 35, seven will be in Surrey.

The province plans to install new warning signs and activate technology that would ticket the registered owner of the vehicle “entering these intersections well over the posted limit on a red, yellow or green light.”

At the time of the announcement, the government said the new warning signs and technology would be implemented this summer.

“Speed & red light” signs have popped up at 152nd Street and 64th Avenue, as well as 152nd Street and 96th Avenue, with a camera set up at the latter.

It’s not yet known if tickets are being mailed out yet, or if the cameras are still being tested.

READ MORE: Cameras will ticket speeding drivers at seven Surrey intersections – even if light is green, May 7, 2019

The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, which announced the new cameras, said it “anticipates phased activation of the upgraded cameras to start in summer 2019 and continue through the year, with all speed-activated ISCs (intersection speed cameras) operational by spring 2020.”

A statement from the ministry says equipment testing at ISC sites is “ongoing in anticipation of the first locations being activated for automated enforcement this summer.”

“The Province, along with the RCMP and ICBC, has announced it is implementing automated speed enforcement at specific, high-crash intersections throughout B.C. to help reduce excessive speeds and improve road safety,” the statement reads. “Before this happens, municipalities are installing prominent signs at intersections to warn approaching drivers.”

The eight Surrey/North Delta intersections are:

• 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

• Nordel Way at 84th Avenue

When the upgraded cameras were announced, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said that to “discourage high speeds” at the location, government and police wouldn’t be disclosing the speed threshold that will trigger the new cameras.

The ministry says this is “consistent with every other Canadian jurisdiction using automated speed enforcement,” but added that depending on continued monitoring of the ISC program and evaluation of road safety outcomes, “this threshold may change in the future.”

The ministry says the government has completed its analysis of speed and crash data for the 140 Intersection Safety Camera (ISC) program sites that are currently equipped with red-light cameras. Of the 140 intersections, 35 were identified as having “the greatest potential for further safety gains through automated speed enforcement.”

READ ALSO: Surrey RCMP reveal top-10 worst intersections for crashes, June 12, 2019

Between 2012 and 2016, according to the ministry, the ISC sites “reported an average of 10,500 vehicles a year going at least 30 kilometres per hour over the posted speed limit, as detected by red-light cameras.”



Lauren Collins

About the Author: Lauren Collins

I'm a provincial reporter for Black Press Media's national team, after my journalism career took me across B.C. since I was 19 years old.
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