Ottawa photo radar debate brings battle of the grassroots campaigns

Grassroots organizations in Ottawa are readying their petitionsand lawn signs as they try to sway public and city council opinion on bringing photo radar to the capital.

Coun. Riley Brockingtonbrought a motion to last Wednesday's city council meetingto request permission from the province to bring in photo radar as a way to cut down on speeding and make city roads safer.

Council decided to pushthe issue toits May 4 transportation committeeto allow for public consultations andmore time to study it.

• Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson 'not convinced' city needs photo radar
• Photo radar coming to Gatineau, Que., by mid-October

In the meantime, groups such asNo Photo Radar in Ontario are getting ready to make their pitch.

Founder Chris Klimeksaid Monday he's hard at work setting up social media and lawnsign campaigns in Ottawa because the vote is coming soon.

"It doesn't stop truly dangerous drivers or drunk drivers. Those people whoactually do 30 or 40 [km/h]over [the speed limit],who may actually be the ones more prone to having a collision or an accident, they will never be stopped by photo radar," he said.

"In essence, photo radar is simply preying on the safest 85-per-cent of drivers who are doing small infractions, 10 to 15over [the limit]."

Photo radar supported by petition

The group Safe Streets Ottawa brought a petition forward with more than 550 signatures to Wednesday's council meeting arguing the opposite. Theysaid Monday they'll continue to make their case that photo radar is an effective tool to enforce the law.

"We see the worst of the worst ticketed and speed limits enforced and life goes on," said MichaelPowell, one of the group's members.

"For those of us that adhere to speed limits going about our daily lives, photo radar only is a benefit. For those that don't, there is a greater risk so it encourages them to slow down."

Toronto and Hamilton are among the other communities to consider asking the provincial government for permission to set up photo radar in their communities.

This comesafter Premier Kathleen Wynneopened up the possibility, saying the government would decide on a case-by-case basis after getting such requests.

Gatineau results could help Ottawa

Photo radar opponents take Edmonton as an example of how many tickets are issued that way.

In 2014, the citygave out around 620,000 speeding tickets through photo radar its population is 812,000 while that same year Ottawa and its population of 883,000 had almost 43,000 "moving violations,"which include speeding and ignoring traffic lights.

For Ottawa, decision makers can look at anearby case study across the riverin Gatineau, which started rolling out 20 portable photo radar units across the city in October.

Last week Radio-Canada received a preliminary report on the first five months of Gatineau's photo radar program. It's resulted inmore than 7,200 ticketstotaling$721,211 in fines.

Gatineau police saythey've seen drivers slow down and be more careful whenthey know cameras are around.

Concernover radar revenue

However, Klimek said people in Winnipeg and Edmonton have raised concerns over big increases in the number of photo radar tickets issued and the revenue raised from one year to the next.

He cautions thatGatineau could see the same dynamic.

"Once the authorities realize there's so much profit to be made and they can be made to look good in the eyes of some of their constituents ...they realize it's a dual sort of benefit in their eyes: we can make a lot of money and we can say we have safe streets," he said.

Powell arguedphoto radar doesn't lead toinvoices being mailed to everyone across the city, only those who break the law.

"Having a police officer sit in his or her car with a radar gun is an expensive tool for the police to use. Photo radar is a more effective one that catches more people along the way and I think that's why law enforcement officials are looking for it," he said.

"It's more effective for them to do their job and they can see what happens in Gatineau, Saskatchewan and Alberta and how it's effective for them."