Every serious incident on the Malahat, such as the one that blocked the highway for 14 hours Thursday, brings a flood of suggested solutions. Some verge on fantasy; most are long term and extremely expensive.
But there’s one short-term, low-cost remedy with proven effectiveness that could be implemented immediately — photo radar. If politicians can’t find the courage to install permanent photo radar on the Malahat, they could turn to its more-palatable cousin — speed cameras.
Interval-based speed cameras are different from photo-radar systems in that they record the time it takes for a vehicle to travel between two points, rather than clocking the vehicle’s speed at any given moment using a radar device. If a vehicle is found to be speeding, a ticket is issued either on the spot by a waiting police officer or sent through the mail.
The province has embarked on a study of speed cameras at the request of the Capital Regional District. The public had until March 1 to weigh in on the subject; the results have not yet been made public.
Public input is good, but the really effective study would be to put the technology in place and see what results.
B.C.’s experience in the 1990s showed that photo radar reduces traffic fatalities significantly.In the six years before it was introduced in 1995, the average number of people killed on B.C. roads was 534. After the first year of photo radar in B.C, a study found the number of daytime unsafe-speed collisions had decreased by 25 per cent and the number of fatalities by 17 per cent.
Studies in Scotland and several other countries showed that speed cameras reduced fatalities by 50 to 74 per cent.
The province has spent millions trying to improve safety on the Malahat over the past 20 years, and work continues.
But making the Malahat safer is really up to the people who drive the highway, and technology can help those people be better drivers.
