Edmonton still waiting for provincial review of photo radar
Posted September 10, 2026 5:17 pm.
Edmonton is eyeing a return of photo radar at some intersections across the city, but city council still has no clear timeline for when or even if that will happen.
Several months after applying to the province to turn on speed cameras at eight specific intersections, Edmonton’s mayor says he’s frustrated with the holdup.
“We need to have that response done more quickly,” said Mayor Andrew Knack. “It literally is impacting lives at this point.”
At one intersection in particular – Calgary Trail and 34 Avenue – the city says 8,000 drivers are clocked going at least 20 km/h over the speed limit every year.
All eight of the intersections included in the city’s applications between November and January either have dozens of collisions, thousands of speeders, or someone was killed in a crash.
The Alberta Motor Association (AMA) says citywide, speed-related deaths in Edmonton shot up 73 per cent in 2025 alone.
And drivers are becoming more confident while going faster.
“The truth is that we can’t control everything else on the road. We can only control ourselves. There’s plenty of things that could go wrong,” said Hannah Hamilton, the AMA’s safe communities program manager.
At an unrelated announcement Thursday, Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen says the province has invested in other methods of improving traffic safety since doing away with speed cameras in April 2025 – a system he referred to as a cash cow.
The minister says photo radar should be the last resort to improving safety.
“We’ve actually introduced intersection engineering funding so we can actually address some of the unsafe intersections which could have physical problems to them, where they need to have some improvements, whether it’s additional left turning lanes or better line of sight,” Dreeshen said.
A spokesperson for Minister Dreeshen’s office says a decision on Edmonton’s application will be made sometime this fall.
But Mayor Knack still wants more clarity, sooner.
“It was important to have an answer within two months of the initial submission because we are seeing the issues today on the roads that have been identified at the intersections that have been identified,” Knack said. “There are real safety concerns in those spaces.”
