EDMONTON – Memorize this list and slow down if you want to avoid that sickening flash in the rear-view mirror.
The City of Edmonton released a top 10 list of photo radar spots Monday.
Police have handed out more than 113,700 tickets this year. The top spot at 8,653 was in the east end on 101st Avenue, a quick route from downtown or off Wayne Gretzky Drive to 50th Street and Sherwood Park’s Baseline Road.
Diane Royan wasn’t surprised. She lives on 101st Avenue near the radar’s favourite spot at 67th Street. “We know when he sits here, there are lots of flashes.”
Two of the top locations are near schools – Glenora School and St. Francis of Assisi Elementary School.
Mark Boulter got two photo radar tickets driving by the Glenora School.
“Frustrating,” he said. “They always catch me when they’re hiding behind a bush.”
The photo radar van usually sits to the side at Stony Plain Road and 133rd Street, just east of where Stony Plain Road splits into Stony Plain and 102nd Avenue. Police catch drivers heading east toward the school and downtown.
They caught 5,607 people on Stony Plain Road last year, plus another 3,189 people passing the school on 102nd Avenue.
Get daily National news
The problem is that Stony Plain Road just feels like it should be faster, said Boulter, whose wife now tries to warn him every time he takes that route.
He was going 65 km/h last time he was caught and paid an $80 ticket.
“It’s a long stretch to travel at 50 kilometres an hour,” he said. “I think it warrants more than 50.”
But he hadn’t realized there was a school there.
Edmonton police pick the locations to set up photo radar. The City of Edmonton’s office of traffic safety does speed surveys, often sparked by neighbourhood complaints, and gives recommendations to police, said Gerry Shimko, the office’s executive director.
The Glenora site has been a problem for a long time. The school is there, many people live nearby, but the road also carries a lot of traffic in and out of the city core, he said. “It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is.”
Other top locations were on Yellowhead Trail, which averages two collisions a day, and near three construction zones on Anthony Henday Drive.
Police handed out 6,145 tickets to drivers heading north and south on 66 Street past St. Francis of Assisi. That delights assistant principal Michelle Lafrance.
“At this intersection, right in front of our door, we’ve witnessed terrible accidents,” she said. A van once hit a nearby bus shelter, trapping a mother and her child underneath. Other times, vehicles have come close to hitting students in the crosswalk, she said.
“But it’s almost like it has a special blessing. There have been no fatalities,” she said. “It’s an incident waiting to happen.”
Top 10 Photo radar sites from 2011
View Edmonton’s top 10 photo radar locations in a larger map
- 101st Avenue eastbound between 67th Street and 70 Street. – 8, 653 tickets
- Yellowhead Trail westbound near 77 Street – 7,599 tickets
- Stony Plain Road eastbound at 133rd Street – 5,607 tickets
- Anthony Henday Drive northbound between Whitemud Drive and 87th Avenue – 5,191 tickets
- 82nd Avenue westbound between 96th Street and 97th Street – 4,006 tickets
- Anthony Henday Drive southbound between 109 Avenue and Stony Plain Road – 3,495 tickets
- 66 Street southbound between 132nd Avenue and 134th Avenue – 3,298 tickets
- 102nd Avenue eastbound at 137th Street – 3,189 tickets
- Stony Plain Road eastbound between 215th Street and Anthony Henday Drive – 2,995 tickets
- 66 Street northbound between 132 Avenue and 134 Avenue – 2,847 tickets
Comments