Drivers who speed through red lights can expect to receive tickets faster and more often once an ICBC red light camera upgrade and expansion is complete.
Currently, 30 film cameras are being rotated among 120 intersections across B.C. to photograph traffic violations. But ICBC spokesman Adam Grossman says the program is expanding to 140 intersections, each of which will have a permanent digital camera in place.
"The images can be instantly relayed to the offices, so that means ticket can go out faster when they are required," he said.
"The current film cameras have to be taken down, they have to have the film removed and processed. They're very old cameras."
The provincial government first considered upgrading the decade-old cameras in early 2008. ICBC decided to re-evaluate the cameras' locations, and has spent the last year analyzing 1,400 intersections across B.C. and consulting with police and engineers.
"We wanted to know when are the high-crash times of day, where are the high-crash locations," he said. "Some of the locations will be the same but many will have changed."
The camera locations are going to be announced all at once sometime within the next few months, Grossman said.
The fine revenue generated by the cameras goes directly to the municipality where they are located – though ICBC benefits indirectly from the decrease in traffic accidents and claim costs.
Between 1999, when the program began, and 2008, total crashes dropped six per cent in B.C.
"Our number one goal is to reduce serious crashes," Grossman said. "Hopefully these will be an effective deterrent."
