On Thursday, the city released its 2015 traffic accident report.

Where there were 2,912 “incidents” in 2014, there were 3,033 last year, a rise of about 4%.

Fatalities were up nearly 40%.

OMG!!! How can this be!?

Haven’t our photo-radar obsessed mayor, administration and council assured us over and over that so long as they impose tens of millions in speeding fines on Edmontonians each year our city’s streets will become safer?

They even have a multi-million-dollar campaign called Vision Zero whose stated goal is zero fatalities and injuries (and maybe more rainbows and candies and unicorns for everyone while they’re at it).

Last year, it is estimated the city hauled in nearly $48 million from photo radar, before expenses. That’s a spike of almost 17% from the record $41 million raked in in 2014.

Some of that staggering increase is the result of the province raising fines for all sorts of traffic offences, including speeding. The city scooped up more per ticket without lifting a finger.

But an equally large chunk of the extra money comes from the city’s own determination to give more tickets to drivers exceeding the limit by only six to 10 km/h.

Back when city police used to operate the photo radar program (before 2012 when the city administration began its takeover), far fewer tickets were issued to drivers going between six and 15 km/h over. The vast majority of tickets (73%) went to drivers going more than 15 km/h faster than the limit.

Now that the bureaucrats are in charge, 56% are issued to drivers going less than 15 km/h.

Despite all this extra enforcement, there has been no corresponding decrease in injuries or deaths.

The city loves to cite the “fact” that major accidents have been cut in half since 2006 and to imply the reason is their strict enforcement with photo radar. According to administration, photo radar “is proven to reduce collisions and the resulting injuries.”

But most of the improvement occurred before the city took over in 2012 and tripled the number of tickets being given out every year.

Last year, for instance, as the number of accidents was rising 4%, the number of photo radar tickets went up 2.5% from the previous year.

More importantly, since the city took over, the accident rate has remained virtually unchanged. It was 28.9 per 100,000 the last year police operated the system and it was 28.7 last year.

Since the city took over, the number of tickets handed out has risen 300%. The net amount brought in from fines (total fines minus the city’s expenses) has risen from $13 million to around $40 million – also around 300%.

Meanwhile, the accident rate has fallen by less than 1%.

That decline is so insignificant it cannot be attributed to photo radar. Indeed, better winter weather with fewer icy streets could account for that drop, too.

Even if the 1% decline in accidents could be shown to be the result of increased photo radar, the decrease wouldn’t justify the cost.

I won’t say photo radar is ineffective. Probably when the police were operating it (and one-third the current number of tickets were being issued), it was one of the reasons traffic accidents and deaths declined – one of.

The point is that nearly all of the increased enforcement since the city took over has been useless. Average speeds overall have come down very little, and accidents and fatalities have dropped less than when the police were in charge.

The city’s bottom line is the only thing that has noticeably improved since administration began operating photo radar.