[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by jayswin

The new "permanent" location for the photo radar vehicle on deerfoot south. Used to be along the southland turnoff. Now they're getting around the fact that they've been mandated to be highly visible to traffic with a yellow "drive safe" wrap, by "hiding" the vehicle, which is bull****.

Now they're parking along the side lane that goes from glenmore west to deerfoot south over the bridge. They sneak it along the merge lane, beside the barrier so deerfoot south drivers can barely see it until it's too late, which is exactly what they were mandated against doing.

Hidden vs visible debate aside, it just grinds my gears because they're creating unsafe merging as the vehicle is right beside the glenmore west/deerfoot south mergers. Everyone already merges too slow there, now everyone's slowing down to like 50km's an hour next to the drive safe radar vehicle because it's so close (or maybe some think the legistlation of slowing to 50kms beside an emergency vehicle counts in this case?) and then there's a line of us trying to merge onto deerfoot at 50kms. Like **** off with that radar placement for multiple reasons.

Report it.

Make sure you call out the facts you've stated: this creates a dangerous situation for drivers attempting to merge onto a 100 KM/H freeway and violates the spirit of the law about the vehicle being clearly visible. Using a barrier to obscure the high-vis vinyl (as it does in that section) is clearly what the law was intended to prevent.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Calgary/com...right/j1586uk/

Originally Posted by birchy98

TL;DR - I complained about this behavior through the appropriate channel at CPS, and they acknowledged, agreed, and appear to have made adjustments in the specific area I complained about.

More detail: I had some free time so I decided to submit a complaint through the "Professional Standards" division provided on their website: https://www.calgary.ca/cps/public-se...ry-police.html. I made reference to the spirit of the law - and how even though they had bright signage on the vehicles and were far enough away from the transition zone (commended them for those things) - the fact that they were still purposely hiding behind obstacles defeated the purpose of the legislation - and was "disingenuous at best, illegal at worst". I also said that if this was about safety, there's tonnes of space in the same area for them to park out in the open where everyone can see them. I was expecting to get some form of defensive response with some mental gymnastics to show they were not 'technically' breaking the law.. but to their credit, they agreed and owned it. This was the reply from a Sergeant in the "Specialized Traffic Enforcement Unit" (names removed):

Good morning birchy98,

Thank you for bringing the issue of parking behind the bus stop in the 5400 block of Crowchild Trail to our attention.

I realize that the matter was flagged as resolved at Professional Standards, however I wanted to notify you that we are addressing it.

You are quite right that parking behind a bus stop or similar object is not in compliance with the spirit of the regulations.

We did specifically notify our operators over the past month to refrain from doing so.

Further reminders have been sent.

Thank you,
Sergeant

I was out again last night and though I didn't see it up close to know 100% for sure - I saw a parked vehicle with the 4 way flashers on - in the same general area they always park, except this time out in the open before the bus stop. So if it was the photo radar unit, it appears they got the reminder above and changed their behavior! So kudos for that!

Long story short - if you have specific examples in your own areas - it appears the official complaint process actually works, so please take a few minutes to fill out the form!