January 12, 1998
PHOTO RADAR BENEFITS: HOW TO LIE WITH STATS

VANCOUVER -- THE SPIN: "Speed crackdown shows results: Stats" (The Province, 
Thursday, January 8, 1998.)  Fatal and injury claims down, less vehicles 
exceeding speed limits: photo radar must be working!

THE FACTS IN PERSPECTIVE:
  <graph deleted -- see "News" web page for January 12, 1998>

ICBC promoted that photo radar's first year should:
* reduce deaths on the roads by 50 (actual were 34, and these include other 
factors: see below)
* reduce injuries by 4,000 (actual injury claims were down by only 1,600)
* reduce crashes by 9,000 (data not available)
* save ICBC $125 million in auto insurance claims.
 
Consider:
* "For most of the year, we saw the kind of drinking/driving CounterAttack 
road checks normally seen only in December," states ICBC's Ken Hardie.  The 
program was so successful that impaired driving charges dropped by 37.5% in 
Vancouver.
* Record warm weather in winter months of 1997 reduced crashes.
* A declining trend in BC auto fatalities over the last four years, a world-
wide long-term declining trend.

Take away the above influences and ask "where is the benefit from photo 
radar?"
* While photo radar was to target only the "worst of the worst" and the 
"excessive speeders", only about 0.3% of tickets are actually issued for 
"excessive speeding".  Many enforcement tolerances are only 11 km/h (7 mph) 
over posted speed limits which do not meet international standards.
* Vancouver motor vehicle fatalities rose 28% in 1997.
* BC has yet to see any of the long promised improvements in our 40 year old 
driver education curriculum.

The government/ICBC has no proactive, long-term, intelligent approach to 
transportation and traffic safety. Their myopic focus on speeding fine revenue 
prevents drivers from benefiting from efficient, safe, and affordable 
transportation.

Confidential ICBC documents leaked to SENSE suggest that BC motorists should 
brace themselves for a doubling of photo radar, further erosion of the 
'fairness code', penalty points on all photo radar tickets, and penalty point 
premium increases of up to 50%.

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