Better cell'f control? Distracted driving convictions far lower in Calgary than Edmonton

Calgary drivers are being penalized for distracted driving far less often than drivers in Edmonton, but experts say that's more likely due to differences in enforcement than differences in driver behaviour between the two cities.

There have been about 1,450 convictions per year, on average, over the past three full years on record in Calgary, according to data compiled by the provincial government.

That compares to nearly 3,900 convictions per year over the same time period in Edmonton, where there are fewer licensed drivers.

Dominic Schamuhn, manager of advocacy with the Alberta Motor Association (AMA), says it's unlikely the difference is due to Calgary drivers being significantly more law-abiding than Edmonton drivers when it comes to using cellphones or other digital devices behind the wheel.

"Distracted driving is everywhere," he said. "We only need to look around us to see that this issue clearly hasn't gone away."

Rather, Schamuhn believes "enforcement in one community was maybe a little more active than in another."

Calgary police don't dispute that.

Distracted driving has been against the law in Alberta for more than a decade now and enforcement practices have changed over the years.

These days, police in Calgary say they are currently emphasizing driver education and doing enforcement on a "situation-specific" basis.

"At the moment, we don't have a specific enforcement target," said acting Staff Sgt. Colin Foster with the Calgary Police Service (CPS) traffic section.

"If an officer sees somebody on a cellphone, you're possibly going to get pulled over and given a ticket," Foster said. "There's no blitz that we are taking part in at the moment. So that will possibly account for some of the discrepancy between jurisdictions within Alberta."

Edmonton police set targets for distracted driving tickets in the past, according to published policing plans dating back to 2017 and prior, but it's unclear if there are similar targets today. The Edmonton Police Service declined to be interviewed for this story.

Edmonton police did tell CBC News last year that they occasionally run operations where an officer is posted on a median or curb to note distracted drivers and then radio to other officers to pull them over.

Police in Edmonton also conduct periodic traffic-enforcement blitzes known as "Operation 24 Hours," which are not specifically aimed at distracted driving but often do result in some distracted-driving tickets being issued.