More people were caught running red lights in Burnaby last year and that's part of a growing trend in Metro Vancouver.
ICBC's recent release of violators caught via its expanded red-light camera program show that the Metro Vancouver region experienced a 50 per cent spike, but Burnaby was even higher, at 148 per cent. New Westminster bucked the trend and experienced a 62 per cent decrease in number of red-light camera tickets issued.
In comparison, some other municipalities experienced even larger increases than Burnaby, including Port Coquitlam at 1,639 per cent, Coquitlam at 713 per cent, Richmond at 506 per cent, Surrey at 385 per cent and Langley at 219 per cent.
Burnaby's numbers show that 1,622 tickets were issued in 2010, rising to 4,027 in 2011. In New Westminster, the numbers went from 1,174 red-light camera tickets issued in 2010 to 445 in 2011.
The dramatic increase coincides with the addition of 20 new cameras being added in the past year, bringing the total to 140, with those cameras only active 25 per cent of the time.
Mark Milner, road-safety project manager for ICBC, told the Vancouver Province the red-light camera program was expanded and improved with digital technology during the past two years.
The goal of the red-light camera program was to reduce accidents, said Milner. ICBC hopes to pay for the $23-million startup costs and $1.2-million yearly operating budget through savings realized by fewer crash and injury claims, he said.
He said the old analog cameras reduced collisions by about five per cent a year. The effectiveness of the new digital cameras is due to be reviewed by an independent third-party firm and that report will be submitted to the B.C. Utilities Commission in 2013.
While the distinctive flash still goes off any time someone blows a red light, a ticket is only sent out in 25 per cent of cases. Each digital licence-plate capture must be analyzed by an RCMP officer before the infraction notice is sent out.
Milner said the logic behind the 25-per-cent rule is in part to avoid the program being seen as a tax grab.
At $167 a ticket, in 2011 there was $5.1-million worth of tickets issued, compared with $3.4 million in 2010.
Revenue generated by the tickets goes into provincial coffers to pay for traffic initiatives for all of B.C., whether they have cameras or not.
Milner said the 25-per-cent rule is also in place to keep continuity with the old analog system, where cameras were moved from location to location so an intersection had a camera in place 25 per cent of the time.
Milner said that while the new digital cameras are permanent, ICBC wanted to be consistent and only ticket people 25 per cent of the time at one location.
The rest of the time the cameras will still flash and collect data on the number of vehicles deemed to be running a red light without generating a ticket.
"There is no evidence that a 100-per-cent activation level is optimal," Milner said in his interview with The Province.
Overall, the number of tickets issued jumped to 30,803 last year across B.C., all but about 1,200 of them issued in the municipalities from West Vancouver to Chilliwack, according to ICBC statistics.
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