Dear Editor,
Ponoka, like most small towns, is continually faced with budget demands and potential shortfalls. It occurred to me the other morning that there is a partial solution to the “potential shortfall” situation.
That solution is to place a photo radar camera on 63 Street between the Adventist Church corner and Integra Tire at the bottom of the hill. I walk that stretch many morning a week between 5 and 8 a.m. and observe the traffic as people head off for work via truck or car. The street is a speedway.
Many of the drivers reach speeds between 70 and 100 km as they descend that hill. (The guy in the beige Jeep alone would bring in $600 - $700 a month!) An added benefit to this practice would be the increase in public attendance at town council meetings, as citizens showed up to complain about the town’s “cash grab” – apparently a favourite complaint of those who are being bitten by the law via fines.
You may think this is a frivolous suggestion. I can tell you that when I lived in Calgary in the 1990s, I was the unhappy recipient of two photo radar tickets in one month. The cost persuaded me to alter my driving habits immediately. It was too expensive to do otherwise. In the 20 years since that shocking month, I have received only one speeding ticket. It’s called “live… and learn. Don’t learn? Pay!”
James Strachan