A tax on speed

Opinion

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This article was published 26/02/2021 (1153 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s the hot ticket that seemingly never goes out of style.

If you haven’t had a photo radar, or red-light ticket sent to you in the mail in the last two decades since automated traffic enforcement became legal in Manitoba, you probably haven’t been driving… much.

Winnipeg Police Service statistics show more than 120,000 photo radar and red light violations occurred in 2019, the most recent statistics available. That’s down from the previous three years by about 20,000 tickets. And while complete figures for 2020 will be released this spring, last year — based on figures to September 30 — looks on pace with 2019 despite the pandemic’s impact.

Broken down among the approximately 430,000 vehicles on the road, about one in four registered vehicles in Winnipeg receives a photo enforcement ticket each year.

Tens of thousands of drivers grudgingly pay them — which often exceed $200. They receive and pay them so regularly, a line for traffic violations could be allotted in their household budgets.

Of course, every year, a few thousand Manitobans fight their tickets in court.

No one has taken this fight further than Todd Dube.

He has not only questioned the fairness of a ticket he first received several years ago. For the past decade, Dube has fought the entire system, arguing it employs unfair tactics and fails to prove conclusively it improves road safety. Instead, he contends photo radar is mostly a means to generate government revenue.

“I got a red-light ticket about 12 years ago driving on Bishop Grandin,” says Dube, who runs a marketing and public relations company. “There is just no way in the world that I could have stopped when I saw it turn yellow, so I got a ticket for $200… for going 80 (kilometres per hour) in an 80 (km/h limit zone).”

Ever since, Dube has been a gadfly for government, having launched a website critical of photo radar (WiseUpWinnipeg.com) and “spent six figures of my own money” on an unsuccessful Supreme Court of Canada challenge.

He and other like-minded individuals have pointed out what they perceive as the program’s unfairness, including yellow lights too short for high-speed intersections, poor signage for speed limit changes, and the tickets’ increasingly high cost.

“As soon as you start raising revenues, you are on that slippery slope where the purpose of the fine in the first place is ignored and all that matters is revenues.”–Barry Prentice

According to law student Chris Sweryda — a fellow driver-in-arms with Dube in this battle, and self-described photo enforcement researcher — tickets are particularly expensive in Manitoba.

“We’re the highest (province) by two and a half times,” he says. “The fine for going 10 kilometres over the speed limit is $181.”

That ticket breaks down as follows, as set out in the Provincial Offences Act: Fines are issued once you’re driving 10 kilometres over the speed limit; then it’s $7.70 per kilometre over the limit.

But there’s more: a 45 per cent court fee, an additional 25 per cent “preset fine” and $50 flat fine.

A similar ticket costs about $140 in Saskatchewan, $120 in B.C., about $25 in Ontario, and $110 in Alberta. (Costs in all provinces increase for faster violations, and for speeding in construction and, often, school zones.)

According to Manitoba Public Insurance, Manitoba’s tickets are among the highest in North America.

For good reason, proponents argue. The high fine’s sting curbs bad driving behaviour and improves road safety, reducing crashes by an estimated 5 to 15 per cent, studies show.

Advocates note programs consequently are worthwhile given collisions’ profound impact. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, for example, about 3,700 people are killed globally every day in traffic collisions. A Lancet study further notes road injuries cost the global economy $1.8 trillion annually, the equivalent of a 0.12 per cent tax on GDP.

Winnipeg police point to its most recent report as evidence enforcement is a worthy deterrent, noting violations dropped from more than 25,500 per 100,000 vehicles in 2015 to about 21,700 in 2019. Additionally, the program generates about $13 million annually, including about $8.2 million (in 2019) for the police budget.

Sweryda, however, argues revenues are significantly higher because the police report does not include the province’s share. “Of that $181 (ticket), for example, $77 of it goes to the city, and $104 goes to the province.” He estimates total revenues are closer to about $50 million annually.

In an email to the Free Press, Manitoba Justice confirmed its share, which includes fees for court costs and a victim surcharge.

Given how perennially tight government coffers are, it seems photo radar is a lucrative success too. Not only does it curb bad driver behaviour, but it also raises revenues to support the common good.

Yet a business professor at the University of Manitoba argues the program’s consistent cash haul for government is problematic.

“It creates a conflict of interest,” says Barry Prentice, former director of the Transport Institute at the post-secondary institution.

“As soon as you start raising revenues, you are on that slippery slope where the purpose of the fine in the first place is ignored and all that matters is revenues.”

In this respect, photo enforcement fines do seem like a tax (typically imposed on legal activity versus illegal acts — like fines) on speed many Winnipeg drivers are now accustomed to paying.

Then again, it could be worse.

You could live in Finland or other European nations where, like income tax, fines are based on your income, as noted in a 2018 World Economic Forum report, pointing to a wealthy, Finnish businessman receiving an $80,000-ticket for driving 22 km/h over in a 50 km/h zone.

Ouch… Now that really stings.