Photo radar critics: slow down and pay your idiot tax

Winnipeg Free Press

04-07-2025

Opinion
All hail the idiot tax.
This week, the City of Winnipeg confirmed it is not only renewing its contract with a third party to provide photo radar equipment, but it is introducing a new generation of technology that would make it easier to install and capture better images.
The current equipment consists of above-grade cameras on poles, and below-grade coils under the pavement. The cameras employ old technology, and the sub-grade equipment is degrading. Thus, it's time for an upgrade.
The city's current equipment consists of above-grade cameras on poles, and below-grade coils under the pavement. The cameras employ old technology, and the sub-grade equipment is degrading. (Wayne Glowacki / Free Press files)
The city, not surprisingly, is keen to get the new equipment up and running.
The Winnipeg Police Service has long believed photo radar is a valuable tool that encourages people to drive more slowly in controlled areas that, in the process, makes city streets just a little safer. Coun. Markus Chambers, chair of the Winnipeg Police Board, noted that the ongoing operation of the system will pump millions of dollars into the city's cash-strapped coffers.
The five-year contract, if approved by council, would cost about $25.2 million up front. However, the WPS believes it will net out $12.8 million in revenue after payments to the contractor are covered.
That has prompted detractors, once again, to disparage photo radar as a 'cash grab.'
Personally, I've never understood why someone would call a legally empowered program to fine people for doing something illegal a 'cash grab.' Are they suggesting that nobody should be fined doing anything illegal? Or, that we should advocate for responsible speed limits but do nothing to enforce them?
Those questions remain largely unanswered by WiseUp Winnipeg, the diligent but otherwise aimless advocacy group of unknown magnitude that continues to publicly lobby against photo radar. The same goes for Christian Sweryda, a self-styled 'road safety researcher' and law student who was once tossed out of court by a judge for providing legal representation (he is not a lawyer) to an aggrieved driver fighting a photo radar ticket.
Sweryda told the Free Press photo radar is 'a cash cow… It's just pure money coming in.' He's also focusing his masters of law thesis on an investigation into how the city has deliberately set speed limits too low on some streets to trap more drivers in the tentacles of the evil photo radar system.
Beyond that one group and the one law student, there is no evidence of broad public opposition. That is not to say that people like photo radar; only that most of us realize that it is, as it has always been, a completely justifiable idiot tax.
To understand why speed limits are important, and why photo radar ultimately makes so much sense, you need to think back to high school physics.
Newton's Second Law of Motion tells us the force of an object is equal to its mass multiplied by its acceleration. Or, when applied to automobile collisions, the larger a vehicle is and the faster it is going, the greater the force exerted on another object when they collide.
Those other objects can be vehicles, telephone poles, light standards, bridge abutments and — last but not least — people.
Despite our frustration with slow-moving school zones, or speed limits that seem to change from 50 km/h to 60 km/h and then back again with little rhyme or reason, the faster you go, the less time you have to take evasive action or avoid colliding with another object.
Photo radar is, when all is said and done, a truly objective way to enforce speed limits. The fixed camera, on a poll or in a vehicle, records the speed of a passing vehicle. If that speed is above a certain tolerance — my personal experience is that it's hard to trigger photo radar if you're going less than 10 km/h over the speed limit — then the camera activates.
Clean, clear and coldly efficient.
No one likes getting that plain white envelope in the mail that contains a photo radar ticket. (And, yes, I'm speaking from personal experience.) All of us speed at one time or another, and if we don't pay attention, then photo radar is there to remind us that it's a bad and ultimately costly idea to speed.
Tuesdays
A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world.
Finally, a word about the money.
Governments should always be motivated to use fines to produce a change in behaviour. The city fines people for dumping garbage in empty lots, letting a vacant house fall into disrepair and become a fire trap, and parking in a no-parking zone or lingering too long in an authorized spot.
Are those cash grabs? The city is taking money away from people who break bylaws or other laws. If photo radar makes money for a cash-strapped police service, I'm all for it. I suspect many other Winnipeggers are as well.
Never fret about taxes that punish idiots. Just try not to count yourself among their ranks.
[e-mail]
Dan LettColumnist
Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986. Read more about Dan.
Dan's columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press' editing team reviews Dan's columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.