Red light cameras and flashing “Your Speed” signs planned for the Highway 43 corridor through Whitecourt

During a recent Whitecourt Town Council meeting, Jay Granley, Director of Community Safety, provided an update from the Protective Services Committee. Council heard about the committee’s recent discussions around traffic safety along the Highway 43 corridor through town, focusing on the intersection of Dahl Drive and Highway 43. Following their meeting and subsequent discussions, the committee, came up with recommendations for Council to consider, which Granley provided.

“(There were) lots of good ideas. In the end, the discussion centred around two themes: Are there any additional enforcement ideas that we can do to enhance safety through the community and are there education strategies that we can undertake to improve safety,” explained Granley.

He said that from those talks, the group came up with four suggestions, two that are enforcement in nature and two that are educational. “The two enforcement ideas, the RCMP noted that since COVID rules have relaxed, they’ve been able to undertake a lot more trainings. They have more members capable of working speed reduction and radar. That was definitely the one strategy the RCMP committed to increasing along the corridor,” he noted.

“The other, as far as enforcement, was looking at a permanent red light camera at the Dahl Drive/Highway 43 intersection. It will take a little bit longer as right now we have a freeze on any new photo radar enhancements, but it’s something we can look at as time moves on,” explained Granley. The freeze is due to a program review being conducted.

The two educational-based ideas included installing “Your Speed” electronic signs at the east and west boundaries entering Whitecourt on Highway 43. The RFD stated that “committee members felt this is a relatively simple yet effective way of educating and reminding drivers to observe speed limits when transitioning from highway speeds to local speed limits.” Similar to those already in use in school zones, the signs would flash the speed of passing motorists, letting them know if they are speeding or not.

The second educational recommendation was to revitalize the Whitecourt Transportation Advisory Committee. Active in the past, the committee helps facilitate communication and action for the safety and efficient movement of those in the community. Granley said it was great to see the idea come forward.

Mayor Tom Pickard spoke in favour of the Whitecourt Transportation Advisory Committee revamp. “We have one of the originators of that original committee here. I’d like to recognize that former MLA George VanderBurg is here. He was instrumental in that a long time ago. I was the Staff Sargent of the day, and Mr. VanderBurg was our MLA. We found it very useful to have that interaction. When I joined a trucking company subsequent to my retirement, there was still significant benefit. I’m personally very happy to see that. We had valuable input from the trucking industry then, and I hope to see the same level of involvement as we move forward with this new initiative.”

Councillor Tara Baker asked what involvement Council would have in it. Granley said that the connection would be more indirect for now. “I think right now it’s an open invitation to members of the trucking industry but also members of the public. There was a recent advertisement in the local newspaper, inviting members of the public and anyone interested to attend. I think this version (of the committee), chaired by the RCMP, is a way to provide some feedback, for now, to the RCMP and then maybe indirectly through the Protective Services Committee and back to Council on ideas of what could be further implemented or just to spread general information to the community on safety initiatives.”

Councillor Lapointe asked if it were possible to add more “Your Speed” signs in the future, with one or two to start with. “I think so,” said Granley. “I think the initial discussion was to have one down on each end of town, particularly to remind people that if they are used to a speed of 110km/h to transition down to 70km/h. I think it will be a factor, too, in what we are able to get approved through Alberta Transportation. One of the issues that we need to go through is what gets approved, so that might be a factor as well.”

She then asked if the committee had talked about any changes to the lights at Dahl Drive and Highway 43 being needed for the future. CAO Peter Smyl said that it was being monitored. “With Alberta Transportation, the system they have now, they do a monitoring of it, and I know that in the last few weeks they were doing some changes to the lights, constantly reviewing it, even when school starts they do reviews too. Then with Infrastructure (town department), we keep communication that way.”

Granley said bringing in the red light camera would greatly help. “Even though we think all the pre-warning flashing signs are proper and the speed limit is proper, it’s some way to do that enforcement. With people aware of the red light camera, it changes behaviour.” Mayor Pickard agreed and added that newer GPS systems would act as another reminder. “If there is a red light camera, most modern GPS systems on vehicles will notify the driver that there is a red light camera coming, so it also acts as a reminder that way. But we actually have to have one. You can’t just put up a fake one if you will. So, it does have that additional educational impact.”

Councillor Paul Chauvet asked about the costs for the project, adding that the highway belongs to the province. Granley said that the red light camera, specifically, should be able to be added to the contractual arrangements in place with the current photo radar supplier. “If that’s the direction we choose to go, which seems like a good strategy right now, then it shouldn’t be at our cost.” The flashing “Your Speed” signs would likely be a cost to the community. “We will bring it back to budget deliberations if council supports it,” added CAO Peter Smyl. “It depends on what type of sign you go with. Is it recording, does it record speeds, traffic volume etc.”

Council voted unanimously to accept two of the recommendations from the Protective Services Committee, which were to initiate provincial approval for the red light cameras at the intersection of Dahl Drive and Highway 43 and to initiate the Provincial approval processes for the installation of “Your Speed” signs at the entrances to town.