Edmonton to seek province's permission to bring back automated traffic enforcement at some intersections

The City of Edmonton is working on a proposal aimed at getting permission from the province to reinstall photo radar or other automated traffic safety measures at 10 intersections where it says it has seen an increase in high-risk driving behaviour.

In April, the provincial government restricted the use of photo radar and other automated traffic enforcement to school, playground and construction zones only. In late 2024, the province announced it planned to scale back photo radar sites by 70 per cent.

Since then, some municipalities in Alberta have appealed to the provincial government to be able to have photo radar return at some intersections.

Calgary has successfully appealed to have photo radar reinstalled at three intersections, and Camrose also successfully appealed to have it be brought back at one of its intersections.

When it announced plans to restrict the use of photo radar, the Alberta government said it wanted to scale back on the practice because it acted as a “cash cow” which eroded public trust.

In an interview with CBC News on Dec. 17, Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen said if municipalities wish to reinstate more automated traffic enforcement, they need to provide very good reasons for doing so.

“We need to see the data,” he said.

“We need to see that the municipality has used other methods, [that] they have looked at engineering and restructuring unsafe intersections … rather than just putting photo radar back in an intersection that maybe made millions of dollars of fines but was still unsafe, even with photo radar.”

Jessica Lamarre, the City of Edmonton’s director of safe mobility, recently told CBC News the city is preparing a business case to present to the province which will argue that speed-on-green enforcement should be able to be implemented at the following intersections:

• 97th Street and 167th Avenue

• 91st Street and 34th Avenue

• Calgary Trail and 34th Avenue

• 23rd Avenue and 91st Street

• 50th Street and 23rd Avenue

• 137th Avenue and 50th Street

• 82nd Avenue and 99th Street

• 118th Avenue and Wayne Gretzky Drive

• 23rd Avenue and Parsons Road

• Mark Messier Trail and 156th Street

The city will need to prove one of three things at each intersection in order for the province to consider granting the exemptions:

• the intersection’s collisions-to-vehicles ratio is at least double the median of five similar intersections;

• that the intersection sees at least 50 crashes per year;

• or provide evidence of traffic fatalities or serious injuries.

The city will also need to show that other safety measures have been ineffective or are not possible.

The City of Edmonton said a recent study it completed in partnership with the University of Alberta found there has been an 87 per cent increase in vehicles travelling between 20-29 km/h over the speed limit at the intersections it monitored.

Debbie Hammond, executive director of the Safer Roads Alliance, a non-profit organization in Edmonton, said she believes photo radar is essential to mitigating risks at such intersections.

“The reality is, people are speeding or blowing through red lights," she told CBC News in an interview. "That's not a cash grab, that's just bad driving behaviour.

“If [photo radar] works, then we should absolutely continue to leverage that because we can't have unlimited amounts of police officers on the roads, you know, ensuring that we have good driving behaviour.”

Hammond noted there has been an increase in traffic fatalities in the city. This year, Edmonton has had more than 30 traffic deaths, up from 26 in 2024.

She said she believes the provincial government shouldn’t have put the restrictions on photo radar use.

“It shouldn't take a cost of life to re-evaluate a policy,” Hammond said.

“It wasn't a good idea to no longer support technology that stops people from going through red lights and stops people from speeding. It was made very clear to the government that we did not think that was a good move.”

In a statement to CBC News, the Edmonton Police Service said it would continue to work with the city and partners to address ongoing traffic safety concerns, and that it supports “efforts to bring back speed enforcement at intersections that meet the provincially-set conditions based on collision data.”