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EDITORIAL: Malahat improvements won’t deter speeders

Time to take speed-interval camaeras on the Malahat seriously
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The sad reality is that the safety improvements under construction on the Malahat won’t slow the parade of speeders. Ironically, some motorists may be more inclined to flex their muscle cars because of a sense of security more dividers provide.

People are going to exceed the limits left, right and centre-line unless drastic measures are put in place. That’s underlined by the fines handed out and vehicles impounded ever time police initiate a ticket blitz. But it doesn’t put a dent in the number of speeders returning undeterred the next day.

That’s why we hope the Capital Regional District’s call to install speed-interval cameras gains the traction it needs with the provincial government.

Some may consider it a non-starter based on the NDP’s abhorrence to photo radar, but interval-based cameras are a completely different ride. This isn’t your parents’ hit or miss, sporadic form of enforcement that has a cop with a radar gun idling at the side of the road.

Once these cameras are up and running, they provide ‘round the clock monitoring, whatever the weather. Results from China and Scotland already show dramatic drops in the percentage of people speeding. Closer to home, interval-based cameras are already used in Alberta and Ontario, and more than 140 communities in the U.S. have embraced the technology. This is not enforcement by entrapment because signs signalling their presence greet every driver before they reach the camera’s range.

While it may seem like an extreme step to many, at the end of the day it could save lives. At the very least it could prevent those notorious delays by eliminating some speed-related crashes.

The NDP inherited a mess with the current state of ICBC and unfortunately, that could mean another rate hike.

But the number one cause of crashes in this province is speed and it doesn’t take much to connect the dots. Less motorists speeding should mean less crashes and fewer claims. Fewer claims, means there may be hope in correcting ICBC’s financial state.

The NDP has a real opportunity to work with the agency it gave life to in 1973 and reduce the carnage here on the Island and throughout the province.

Throw in the fact that it would raise revenues and save lives and it’s a no-brainer from where we sit behind the wheel.