Mimico street the city’s hotspot for speeding, new photo radar data reveals

Thestar.com
March 1, 2021
David Rider

Narrow, leafy Stanley Avenue in Mimico is Toronto’s most ticketed street for speeders, new photo radar figures reveal.

And several locations in Scarborough have also turned out to be dangerous hotspots, according to the city’s 50 photo radar cameras, in their new locations.

The Mimico news didn’t shock a residents’ group waiting on a pandemic-delayed study to identify ways to slow motorists down, after pedestrians and cyclists were injured and killed in south Etobicoke collisions in recent years.

“We need to look at traffic calming measures like speed bumps, peninsulas to narrow roads, anything to slow down drivers,” Michael Majeski, Mimico Residents Association president, told the Star.

“When you’re scoring this high on photo radar it says something, especially with so many repeat offenders even though you can clearly see those (camera) boxes.”

Data released by the city Monday show a total of 22,180 tickets issued via “automated speed enforcement” cameras in December, the first month at new sites. They were first placed at school and safety zones across Toronto last July.

The camera on Stanley Avenue near Elizabeth Street issued the most -- 2,888, or 13 per cent of all tickets -- over the month. The worst repeat offender got a total of 15 tickets for speeding there as well as on Mimico Avenue west of Station Road.

Majeski said possible reasons for Stanley speeding include a speed limit reduction to 30 km/h, residents from nearby condos finding side-street routes to other parts of Etobicoke and a GO station, and the motorist impatience that has bedevilled many Toronto neighbourhoods.

“Stanley is a quiet residential street with a library and a school and a big park,” and a “cut-through” for motorists heading across the rapidly densifying area, he said. “We need solutions from municipal leaders.”

Majeski and other neighbours started a “Slow Down Mimico” campaign in 2018 when an eight-year-old boy suffered a fractured jaw, skull and hip after being hit by a motorist while crossing Superior at Stanley. A cyclist was then struck nearby.

Last summer an elderly pedestrian was killed, followed in November by a 59-year-old cyclist fatally struck by the driver of a cement truck.

In 2018 the local city councillor, Mark Grimes, and the rest of Etobicoke York community council directed city staff to conduct a comprehensive traffic study in Mimico and to report back with “appropriate traffic calming measures.”

Majeski said residents are still waiting and he was told the city’s pandemic emergency response, which saw many initiatives paused, is one factor in the delay. The residents’ association responded it must move ahead, he said, “and this (photo radar) data backs it up even more.”

Grimes could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Speeding was not limited to Mimico. Rounding out the top five sites for tickets were four sites in Scarborough: Birchmount Road north of Bay Mills Boulevard (1,836 tickets); McCowan Road north of Kenhatch Boulevard (1,761 tickets); Ellesmere Road east of Mondeo Drive (1,639 tickets); Scarborough Golf Club Road north of Lawrence Avenue East (1,625 tickets).

The highest fine -- $718 -- was issued to the owner of a vehicle travelling 99 km/h in a 50 km/h zone on McCowan. A total of 2,057 vehicles were hit with more than one ticket during December.

Fines include a set amount based on the speed, a victim surcharge and applicable court costs. Because the driver is not identified, speeders caught with photo radar do not receive demerit points.

One camera -- on Mountview Avenue near Bloor Street West and Keele Street -- triggered the issuance of only one ticket in December.

The cameras are part of the city’s Vision Zero campaign to eliminate pedestrian and cyclist deaths on Toronto streets. Their first month of operation, at the original locations, produced a total of 22,301 tickets.

But drivers seemed to get the message, with the monthly total falling to 5,174 tickets before the city started shifting the devices to other streets last fall.

In a news release Mayor John Tory said the new data shows too many drivers are speeding but he is confident the drop in tickets will be repeated and “we will see this positive impact repeat itself wherever the speed cameras are placed.”