Forget about sneaky photo-radar vans, the city is unleashing four bright, white and attention-grabbing ones that are, well, meant to get drivers’ attention.
“When they first see these vehicles, we want them to think about traffic safety,” said Dan Jones, with Edmonton Transportation’s office of traffic safety. “We want it to be overt. We want it to be educational. We want the awareness to be out there.”
The “Safe Speed” vans, which come with state-of-the-art photo-radar equipment more advanced than ones currently in place in the city, aren’t meant to catch speeders on highways or busy streets.
Instead, they will be present in playground areas, residential areas, and school and construction zones.
Anyone who’d like the van present in one of their communities can simply request it and the community will be put on a waiting list.
Construction worker Bob Sioux, 55, hopes the van does the trick in slowing down speeders in areas where he works.
“We see a lot of traffic all the time, so that’s our main concern and I hope this makes it safer for us to work,” Sioux said.
The vans are part of a pilot program, which, if successful, will see more vans added in the future.
