It’s a well-known fact that Alberta has a fairly poor record regarding traffic safety, especially on highways. I would place most of the blame not on the typical scapegoat, bad drivers, but on the requirement for mandatory liability insurance for the registered owners of motor vehicles. This insulates those who make poor driving decisions from the consequences of their actions, instead transferring the risk to private insurance companies, creating strong incentives for drivers to disregard the well-being of other road users.
If the government was serious about improving traffic safety and already intent on mandating insurance coverage rather than distorting the market for that insurance by requiring minimum levels of coverage for all drivers, I would suggest the insurance policies involved should instead by underwritten exclusively by the government itself. This would provide a genuine incentive for it to improve traffic safety in Alberta.
If the government is able to effectively manage the risk, by setting premiums and coverage appropriately, as well as through traffic safety initiatives such as warrants of mechanical fitness for vehicles, periodic retesting of all drivers, posted minimum speeds on highways, better signage and traffic control devices, etc., underwriting profits would likely be a competitive source of general revenue for the province when compared to, say, photo radar tickets, which seem dubious in their ability to cause drivers to behave prudently. Right now the underwriting profits with respect to auto liability remain with the insurance companies involved in the current system, and traffic safety is markedly poor.
Connor Schech, St. Albert
