It's been a long time coming but finally, on Monday the 19th, Grande Prairie's red light cameras will be active. In case you missed the articlein the newspaper here's the media release from the Enforcement Services department.

"News Release
May 16, 2008
Red Light Cameras are in Effect

The Red Light Cameras are going “live” on Monday, May 19, 2008. For the first 30 days, warning notices will be sent out to the owners of vehicles found in violation. These notices will be clearly identified as warning notices. Following the 30 days, violation tickets will be issued. The specified penalty for a vehicle which goes through a red light is $287.

Included with the notice describing the offence, will be a violation ticket (yellow in colour). This violation ticket is the legal copy for Court purposes. The goal of Enforcement Services is to reduce traffic collisions through education and enforcement. Red light violations contribute to a significant number of injury and fatality collisions in Grande Prairie. Our goal is to reduce these through enforcement by using the red light camera technology."

So if you run a red light in the first month you'll receive a letter giving you a warning - then after that, you'll have to pay. Also, one of the system features that hasn't been mentioned much is that the cameras also record video. When you receive your ticket you'll also have the option of going online and actually viewing video of you going through the red light. Something like that is pretty tough to argue with!

If you are looking for more details on our red light cameras I've done postings on them here and here .

Drive Safe!