In 1997 Sweden implemented a traffic safety idea called vision zero.  Vision Zero is basically the adoption of a long-term goal of zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries.

Sweden currently has the lowest rate of traffic fatalities in the world.  Canada adopted vision zero as a federal strategy in 2016. The City of Edmonton in Canada is stepping up the bar toward the achievement of vision zero goals.

Speed Enforcement

Unlike many other jurisdictions throughout Canada, the City of Edmonton has chosen to move to more aggressive automated enforcement of speed limits.

Apparently speed is a factor in all collisions.   Sure, logically for a collision to occur there must be movement, hence vehicle speed is not zero.

However, as an argument for strict enforcement of vehicle speed limits, it does not cut it for me.  There are numerous other factors impacting accidents and short of not moving at all speed is not necessarily or even primarily the cause.

Cash Grab or Safety

For me,  justifying the feeding the city coffers faster (through automating the collection of speeding fines) using the vision zero objectives is clearly an obfustication of reality.

Speeding fines are lucrative and the city wants to increase revenue.  They introduced a fleet of speed enforcement trucks with photo radar which will be regularly situated at enforcement sites throughout the city.

With enforcement zones published weekly on the web and trucks bright yellow and left in the open, the city is couching this revenue generator as a vision zero safety program.

How gullible do they think we are.