Lacombe is trying to put the brakes on lead-footed drivers.
City council got its first quarterly report on an automated traffic enforcement program introduced last year and the numbers show too many drivers go too fast.
Just over half — 100,532 of 201,036 motorists — who passed by a pair of educational radar speed display signs were going over the posted speed limit, although in most cases it was less than 10 km/h over.
The signs, which display the driver’s speed but don’t record licence plates, were posted on the C&E Trail and 58th Street from October through December.
Similar percentage of speeders were seen by photo radar operators. Of the 1,917 vehicles monitored by the speed gun, tickets were written for 1,066 speeders. The average ticket fine was $106.
Photo radar is contracted out to Edmonton-based Independent Traffic Services.
How fine revenues are shared between the city and the contractor is “proprietary information within a contractual agreement,” says city chief administrative officer Norma MacQuarrie in an emailed response to a request for the breakdown in revenues.
One speed demon was clocked at 131 km/h on 58th Street between 10:30 and 11 p.m.
Among the violators, 46 per cent had Lacombe addresses and the others were from outside town.
Photo radar was used at 25 locations, with many picking up no speeders. The worst stretch by far was 50th Avenue between 63rd Street and C&E Trail, where 633 photo radar tickets were recorded. 50th Street from 54th Avenue to Woodlands Drive was next highest with 197 tickets issued.
The number of vehicles recorded was relatively low because of the winter conditions, which made it difficult for photo radar operators to find a safe place to set up.