Toronto's photo radar systems nab 15,000 more drivers speeding in school zones

Some caught going 86 km/h, more than double the speed limit, others facing multiple tickets

CBC.ca
October 23, 2020

A motorist passes a photo radar system outside a school on Gladstone Avenue in
Toronto's photo radar cameras issued 15,175 more tickets in their second month of operation -- including nabbing four different drivers the city says were going 86 km/h in a 40 km/h school zone.

Overall, drivers may be starting to get the message. The cameras caught 22,301 in their first month.

This month, city officials say 1,198 drivers were re-offenders, which includes three people who received seven tickets each.

Why do these numbers matter? Because Mayor John Tory has said the city needs months of this data before making a decision on whether or not to add more cameras or not (currently, there are 50 spread across the city, with two per each ward.)

On Friday, Tory said in a statement that the latest photo radar data "continues to show the need to automated speed enforcement across our city."

City staff say data from the third month will be available next week.

Road safety advocates have urged the city to move faster to put in more cameras near schools.

"Cars go fast, governments go slow," Albert Koehl, coordinator with the Avenue Road Safety Coalition previously told CBC Toronto.

"When it comes to making roads safe, governments take an extremely cautious approach to ensure that speeders have a generous amount of time to adjust, and yet the roads are dangerous today, people are dying and being seriously injured today," said Koehl.

An analysis by CBC News found speeding continues to be a huge issue in school areas. Drivers break the speed limit near schools some 21 per cent of the time, according to data gathered from radar systems that aren't equipped to automatically send tickets.