With the arrival of spring weather, Calgary police say excessive speeding is on the rise.
“We are seeing speeds on Stoney Trail of 175, 180 km/h on a 100 km/h road,” said Staff Sgt. Andy Woodward of the Calgary police traffic unit, who says Stoney Trail is one of the speeding hot spots.
“We have put our resources towards Stoney trail and it’s paying dividends,” said Woodward.
A quick look at the Calgary Police Service’s social media account reveals dozens of examples of tickets they’ve handed out in recent weeks for excessive speeds: 166 km/h in a 80 km/h speed zone, 131 km/h in a 6 km/h zone, 137 km/h in an 80 km/hrconstruction zone — in one example, a driver was issued $1,200 in tickets.
In addition to a hefty fine, anyone caught speeding at more than 50 km/h above the posted limit is given a mandatory court summons with the potential of even bigger fines and a licence suspension.
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Calgary police say this driver was stopped on April 10 on Deerfoot Trail, near 130 Ave. S.W. for doing 158 km/hr in a 100 km/hr zone.
X/CalgaryPolice
In the first 10 weeks of 2026, Calgary handed out 10,000 tickets for speeding.
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On Saturday, April 18, Calgary traffic officers targeted Stoney Trail and Bow Trail S.W. and in just three hours they issued over 40 court summons and stopped one driver doing 147 km/h.
Calgary police handed out this ticket to a driver on April 1 for doing 130 km/hr in an 80 km/hr construction zone on Deerfoot Trail.
Source: X/CalgaryPolice
After 2025, when there was a record high of 38 people killed on Calgary roads, Hannah Hamilton, program manager of Safe Communities for the Alberta Motor Association, calls the increase in excessive speeding “a very concerning trend.”
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“We know based on provincial and federal data that June, July and August are the months where we see the highest number of either injuries or fatalities related to excessive speeding because the weather is nicer, we’re not as worried about road conditions, so people feel more comfortable speeding,” Hamilton said.
“What we see is that people usually speed on roads that they’re most familiar with. So they’re like, oh, I always drive this route, I know what the signs are, I know where I’m going, and they kind of get into a bit of an autopilot, and they’re more likely to veer or break away from the rules of the road because they feel comfortable.
“But the fact is that if you go even 10 km over the posted speed limit, it doubles your risk of crash, and 20 km over the speed limit, that becomes six times more likely. I think that it’s really important that people understand that one in four crashes in Alberta involves speeding.”
Calgary police say Stoney Trail is a speeding “hot spot” in Calgary and one of the areas where they’re cracking down.
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The crashes can also be traumatizing for first responders.
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“Any of the tragedies that we come across are tough,” said acting battalion chief Adam Boss of the Calgary Fire Department. “Coming on to a scene where there’s a fatality affects our members, affects the public, affects family members. High-speed incidents are all too common. They do happen quite frequently in the springtime.”
“There’s nothing to pinpoint to say these younger drivers,” said Woodward. “We’ve had drivers in their 50s and 60s and we’ve had drivers in their 20s.”
But what Woodward says they have in common is they think “they’ll never get into a collision or they’ll get caught by the police.”
“But we’ve seen it on social media now,” added Woodward. “We are collecting these people.”
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