Vancouver police not enforcing speed limits?
Question: Why has the VPD deemphasized speeding enforcement?
Answer: What is your evidence that they have? Reduced number of tickets per 1,000 vehicles, compared to the past 10 years? Reduced number of officers assigned? I need some facts on this before I start trying to get answers.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Julien // Jul 9, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Maybe a question to ask is if the there is auditing if the number of speeders on the road. Ie Translink will audit fare evasion by random stopping groups of individuals and find the percentage of fare evasion. Does the VPD or someone else (icbc) do surveys of total motorists versus speeding motorists versus ticketed motorist. Second has traffic radio cause a decrease is success of speed traps?
But if we’re talking anectodal evidence there has to be a greater number of traffic violations due to the imposition of a 30km/h zone on bicycle routes.
2 Paul T. // Jul 12, 2012 at 1:05 pm
Actually, there might be some truth to this… Although it might take a LOT of digging to get anyone to admit to it.
As of a couple years ago the court system was so backed up that it was taking well over 2 years to bring disputed tickets in front of a judge. I’ve known a couple of people who found a website which guided them on how to make a constitutional challenge that their right to a speedy trial was violated. In both cases crown dropped the charges once they were told of the constitutional challenge.
Perhaps police have been told to not put so many tickets into the system because too many people are disputing those tickets and getting away with it.
3 Lewis N. Villegas // Jul 16, 2012 at 8:47 am
Real story here, Frances, is the posting of 30 k.p.h. (20 m.p.h.) signs in the neighbourhood.
When the speed was reduced on Hastings Street, I thought that was a wise tip of the hat to the pedestrian presence on our Skid Row.
However, things got more encouraging yet when they popped up in Mt. Pleasant’s inner neighbourhood streets. Cars are typically driving that speed anyway. The traffic circles do more to reduce effective speed limits than signs posted on poles. Yet, the are a timely reminder to everyone to observe a speed that is in keeping with local streets.
The big difference? Less noise. While I don’t have a chart handy, my understanding is that the decrease in noise (tires on pavement) from lowering speed is greater than 1 : 1.
The second lesson to carry away is that the design of the street itself does more to tame neighbourhood traffic than any other one measure.
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