"Cash or credit card, Sir?"

WiseUp turned off by cop tactics

By Ross Romaniuk
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Critics of Winnipeg's photo-radar program are slamming a different kind of police traffic ticketing that they charge is a cash-grab from drivers on McPhillips Street.Wise-Up Winnipeg, a group advocating against the city's photograph enforcement, alleged Tuesday that cops are stepping up efforts to nab motorists at a McPhillips intersection, where traffic is intentionally given very little signed warning of turning restrictions.

One driver told the Winnipeg Sun that he and about 15 other motorists were pulled over by city police within a short period on Sunday morning on southbound McPhillips, after failing to turn right onto westbound Inkster Boulevard where signs order curb-lane traffic to do so.

He and Wise-Up point out that the signs ordering the right turn are posted only a short distance north of the intersection, giving insufficient notice of the required turn -- and providing much less warning than signs do for similar controls on other Winnipeg streets where cops don't usually watch and wait for drivers to break the law.