One in three Calgarians ticketed for speeding last year

[freedogger]

Or should the title say taxed?

http://www.calgaryherald.com/touch/b...tml?id=6176810
In 2011, this city of just over one million issued 316,000 speeding tickets - down slightly from 2010.

Comparatively speaking, Toronto, a city of five million, issued 168,000 tickets (No need to mention Ontario is an economic basket case). Vancouver, with twice the population, issued 21,050. (Perhaps they make it up fining cyclists, anti-pipeline activists, rollerbladers and Occupiers).

[Kybosh]

I didn't get a ticket last year. Personal best!

[topfiverecords]

1 in 4

[Flames Draft Watcher]

Well some people must've gotten several tickets I would suspect.

[LGA]

I would assume there are less speeding tickets in Vancouver largely due to their tiny, tiny roads. As a Calgary native that lived in Vancouver for a couple of years, driving down their "major roads" is like driving down an alley in Calgary.

[burn_this_city]

Probably the majority are the photo radar.

[flylock shox]

I haven't seen a speed trap anywhere in Vancouver in the last 5 years.

[starseed]

The standard speed in the left lane on the 401 is 130 while the speed limit is 100. The locals do not even slow down when a cop goes whizzing by.

[TopChed]

Originally Posted by fotze

There is NO WAY Calgary i 300k+ and Vancouver is 21k. No bloody way.

It's all those Surrey #######s that come in and drive like maniacs. They're not real Vancouverites.

[DownhillGoat]

Do the other two cities mentioned have speed on green cameras, too?

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Do the other two cities mentioned have speed on green cameras, too?

To my knowledge BC does not allow ticketing by camera

[getbak]

316,000 tickets averages out to 36 tickets an hour, every hour of every day for the year.

[Grimbl420]

Originally Posted by LGA

I would assume there are less speeding tickets in Vancouver largely due to their tiny, tiny roads. As a Calgary native that lived in Vancouver for a couple of years, driving down their "major roads" is like driving down an alley in Calgary.

Yes Vancouver lacks major roadways like Deerfoot, Crowfoot, and Glenmore trail, but saying our major streets are like your alleys is a great overstatement. If you truly lived and drove here then you would know that most drivers here drive at a constant 20km/h over the posted limit. the simple fact is that traffic is just not policed here like it is in Calgary, I'm also sure that our lack of photo radar is a big reason why so few traffic ticket are given out here.

[Bill Bumface]

Dear Valentine One, thank you for another successful year of work with a perfect record.

[Vulcan]

One of those tickets is mine and I don't even live in Calgary anymore. Damn photo radar, got me leaving town where they had changed the speed limit from when I lived there. I bet they get a lot of visitors with the photo radar.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Meh, as someone who pretty much speeds everywhere, who has 3 or 4 speeding tickets in 14 years, I'd have to say if you're getting a lot of speeding tickets in Calgary, you're not very smart about it.

[Two Fivenagame]

So...

A) The people of Calgary drive too fast.
B) Speed limits in Calgary are too slow.
C) Calgary has more trucks = more speeding d'bags <---green text
D) Calgary police are too aggressive with handing out traffic violations
E) Calgary only promotes traffic safety through tickets and fines
F) An inadequate public transit system forces more people to drive.....(city council members should have their keys taken away for a month...)

[zamler]

That's a lot of tickets, Calgary must have the lowest accident rate and the safest roads anywhere.

[Cowperson]

They have some nasty phishing holes in Calgary, where the speed limit is posted unreasonably and naturally low, then they hang out very consistently picking people off.

From 162nd heading south on McLeod is a long, long, straight 80km zone that even little old ladies can't lay off. The cops abruptly disappeared for about four months, maybe to let folks get wound up again, an over-fished hole, but are starting to show up again.

They take advantage of an improperly signed situation, which is probably smart, but then they have to defend statistics like this.

No tickets for two years for me!!!

Cowperson

[Kavvy]

I really don't see the problem - raise the fines and put more photoradar on the roads.

There are rules to driving, if you violate them you deserved to be fined. Free public money from people who are willing to take a risk for an extra tax. Everyone who gets a ticket knows the risk prior to committing the offense.

Personally, I speed as much as anyone, talk on the cell phone while I drive, and eat while I drive. For each of these offenses, if I get caught, I deserve a ticket, its that simple.

Raise the fines, I was doing nearly 20 over on the Yellowhead in Edmonton (just above the speed of traffic), and got caught by photoradar. $125 (or whatever it was) once every 5 years isn't going to slow me down. That is an insane deal, for $125 every 5 years I get to go nearly 20 over the limit. Neither is $150 going to prevent me from talking on a cell phone when I have the mind attitude that I won't get caught.

Speeding kills, talking on the cell phone while driving kills - raise the fines.