Edmonton’s police chief Rod Knecht said he’s noticed the number of traffic violation tickets has gone down recently.
During Coffee With the Chief Friday, he said police have noticed that generally, drivers are behaving more responsibly on the roads. Knecht believes the lower number of violations is tied to the slumping economy in Alberta.
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Knecht said police have invested more in traffic enforcement since last year.
“In a one-month period, let’s call it the month of mid-February to mid-March… I can remember this number because it was 4,444 tickets. That’s a lot of tickets for one month and in this kind of economy.”
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Overall though, he said the number of tickets is going down. Knecht still doesn’t think Edmonton drivers are that great, but tougher times mean tighter purse strings.
“We don’t drive all that great in this city,” the police chief said. “I know that comes as a shock to many and I’m sure I’ll be challenged when you publish this, but I stick by those comments. We’re not great drivers in this city. We’re kind of disrespectful to our fellow driver.
“It doesn’t matter how many tickets the police write – we’re more of an annoyance, but I think that’s changed because people can’t afford… the tickets and people don’t want to lose their licence either.”
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