Airdrie drivers are driving distracted more than residents of seven other Alberta communities, according to statistics collected by the Airdrie Citizens on Patrol Association (ACOPA).
Other areas included in the statistics include Sherwood Park, Didsbury, Wabamun, Devon, Crowsnest Pass, Pincher Creek and Westlock.
ACOPA President Ennio Ricci said he’s not sure why Airdronians aren’t getting the message about the dangers of driving while distracted.
“Maybe it’s the high volume of traffic slowing things down when people are commuting to and from Calgary,” Ricci said. “When people spend a long time in the car to commute, maybe they feel like they need to make that time useful?”
Volunteers from ACOPA were out over the summer, looking for distracted drivers and monitoring speeding through playground zones, according to Ricci. The campaign was done in partnership with Alberta Motor Association (AMA) and Citizens on Patrol organizations from seven other communities.
Alberta’s distracted driving law went into effect in September 2011. Under the legislation, motorists caught talking on a cell phone, texting while driving or other activities that are considered distracted, face a $172 fine.
ACOPA volunteers were out looking for distracted drivers three times in July, observing a total of 1,223 vehicles. Of those 14.5 per cent of the drivers were driving distracted as defined by the law. This is significantly higher than the average number of distracted drivers seen in the seven other communities where the number was 2.4 per cent of drivers.
Airdrie drivers seem to be using their cell phones with 6.9 per cent of those observed seen talking on their mobile, compared to the 1.29 per cent seen in the other communities, and 6.5 per cent seen texting while driving (0.71 per cent in Alberta.)
Two-handed eating, driving with a pet on the driver’s lap, reading or writing while driving, personal grooming, and cleaning the vehicle were also observed as part of the blitz. In Airdrie, 1.1 per cent of the drivers observed were engaged in these activities compared to 0.37 per cent for the other communities.
“Looking at the results in each community, I had to go back to check and re-check the numbers I saw coming out of Airdrie,” said AMA Traffic Safety Program Co-ordinator Liam Crotty. “When the average across all of the communities we’re looking at in the province is 2.4 per cent of drivers driving distracted, to see a 14.5 per cent distraction rate in Airdrie was surprising to say the least.”
Ricci said the volunteers were set up in a number of different locations in Airdrie.
“Kingsview Boulevard was one,” he said. “First Avenue was one that we went out to the most, near the Bethany (Care Centre) and Ralph McCall (School). That area is pretty dangerous. People speed there.”
Looking for distracted drivers wasn’t the only thing ACOPA volunteers were involved in recently.
“In the summer we do (observations) for distracted drivers, and a little bit of playground zones but in September, we were requested by the City of Airdrie to do a blitz on school zones, so that’s what we did,” Ricci said.
Ricci said observers focused once again the area around Ralph McCall School. “We went to other schools too, but that one was the focus because we’ve been getting a lot of complaints,” Ricci said. “East Lake Boulevard, too, for speeders, going northbound.”
According to statistics provided by ACOPA, Airdrie drivers do seem to understand they need to slow down in school zones, once the school year has started.
Only 46 per cent of drivers were observed by the volunteers to slow down in playground zones during the summer months, but that number rose to 93 per cent in school zones in September. Volunteers set up three times in playgrounds and six times in school zones, observing a total of 1,530 vehicles.
“We set up in the school zones around 7:30 a.m. when the speed limit drops to 30 kilometres per hour,” Ricci said. “We were there from before it gets busy through that real congested period when vehicles don’t have much choice but to slow down. We stay until late morning to see how the traffic behaves once the congestion is gone.”
Ricci said he was pleasantly surprised by the results in the school zones.
“It was great to see that even once the rush was over, most drivers seemed to be taking it easy and those that were speeding were still under 40 (kilometres per hour),” he said.
Ricci estimates volunteers put in a minimum of 30 hours for both the distracting driving and playground/school zones initiatives.
“We have specific people who do the observations and run the program. They put in countless hours. When they go do distracted driving (observation), they go there for hours. They go in the morning and then they go back in the afternoon,” he said.
For more information about ACOPA, or to become a member, call Ricci at (403) 861-8247 or visit the RCMP detachment on Highland Park Way for an application.
