ROTHENBURGER – New intersection speed cameras don’t go far enough
ONCE AGAIN, KAMLOOPS has been left out.
Thirty-five B.C. intersections will be monitored with radar cameras to catch drivers who speed through. None will be in Kamloops.
The only thing wrong with this plan is that it’s half-baked. Once again, an opportunity to do something serious about speeders has been passed by. It’s political — the characterization of true photo radar as nothing more than a plot to take money from motorists tends to make governments deathly afraid of it.
It might be the death of this latest endeavor, too. The 35 cameras will be upgraded to catch speeders rather than just record whether a red light has been blown. In other words, the light could be red, yellow or green. Speeders who blast through “well over” the limit will find a ticket in the mail.
“The menace of speed cameras has returned,” declares BC Driving Lawyers, a group of trial lawyers who specialize in driving law. It is, they say, a “cash cow” for government, and they’re already advising anyone who gets a ticket to get a lawyer and fight it.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, former school board chair, former editor of The Kamloops Daily News, and a current director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He was awarded the Jack Webster Foundation’s lifetime achievement award in 2011. His editorials are published Monday through Thursdays, and Saturdays on CFJC Today, CFJC Midday and CFJC Evening News. Contact him at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I agree the government did not go as far as they should. I think Kamloops should go their own way and install very many cameras in all major road crossing. And when that is complete they could install a few more in choice neighborhood locations including for example along Valleyview Drive and Columbia Street. The number of inconsiderate drivers out there is staggering! Catch them and make them pay!
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Personally, I had no objection to photo radar, if you are determined to speed, by all means do so the price is high. I see no advantage to the intersection camera’s and am only a little miffed to not be getting one, Kamloops is getting to be a small nation of speeders.
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