Vancouver – For the third year in a row, most British Columbians are in favour of relying on red light cameras to capture speeding vehicles, a new Research Co. poll has found.
Find the full data set here
In the online survey of a representative provincial sample, 70% of British Columbians approve of the use of speed-on-green intersection cameras, while 24% disapprove and 5% are undecided.
Support for speed-on-green cameras is highest among women (74%), British Columbians aged 55 and over (77%) and residents of Vancouver Island (74%). Most voters who supported the BC New Democratic Party (NDP) (76%), the BC Liberals (74%) and the BC Green Party (65%) in the last provincial election are also in agreement.
Speed-on-green cameras are red light cameras that also capture vehicles that are speeding through intersections. Public backing for the use of this specific type of automated speed enforcement stood at 70% in a Research Co. survey conducted in 2018 and 68% in a poll conducted in 2019.
“British Columbians have been consistent in their overall analysis of automated speed enforcement,” says Mario Canseco, President of Research Co. “In the specific case of speed-on-green cameras, there is little difference between drivers (70%) and non-drivers (71%).”
Automated speed enforcement works by using cameras or sensors to pick up a vehicle speeding. A ticket is then issued to the owner of the vehicle. Driver’s license points are not issued as the driver of the vehicle cannot be identified.
More than two thirds of British Columbians also approve of the use of two other types of automated speed enforcement: fixed speed cameras, or cameras that stay in one location and measure speed as a vehicle passes (71%, +2 since 2019) and mobile speed cameras, which can be moved from place to place and measure speed as a vehicle passes (68%, +5 since 2019).
Almost three-in-five British Columbians (58%, +6 since 2019) are in favour of point-to-point speed enforcement, which uses cameras at two or more distant points on a road. The average speed of vehicles that pass between points is calculated and tickets are issued to vehicles whose average speed over the distance was excessive.
Methodology:
Results are based on an online study conducted from June 13 to June 15, 2020, among 800 adults in British Columbia. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region in British Columbia. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is +/- 3.5 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.
