Photo radar back on York Region’s, erm, radar

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 19, 2015
By Lisa Queen


In a move sure to leave motorists and others deeply divided, York Region hopes to resurrect the contentious practice of photo radar.

Council has voted to put together a proposal to ask the province to give the region permission to use the speed enforcement strategy, which involves taking a photo of a speeding car’s licence plate and mailing a ticket to the vehicle owner.

The program had a short-lived and controversial history in Ontario in the 1990s, with advocates saying photo radar increased road safety and critics complaining it was a cash grab.

The issue made its way back on to the region’s radar screen last Thursday during a presentation of the York Regional Police budget.

While the province has put the brakes on any attempts to revive photo radar in the past, Queen’s Park might be convinced if all revenues went to road safety initiatives, Newmarket Mayor Tony Van Bynen argued.

“It was raised as a tax grab (as an argument against photo radar). I’m saying let’s take that argument off the table” because revenues would go to public education, road engineering measures aimed at slowing traffic and enforcement, he told The York Region Media Group Tuesday.

Photo radar could be used to target specific trouble spots such as school districts, Van Bynen said.

“To me, it’s a matter of using technology to advance enforcement of issues of community concern,” he said, adding red-light cameras have helped reduce T-bone collisions at intersections where they are used.

“I think it’s time for us to come back to the (photo radar) discussion again... How many times do we have to ask?”

Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti, chairperson of the police services board, also supports using photo radar to nab speeders in residential areas.

While Police Chief Eric Joliffe praised photo radar and red-light cameras as a way for technology to improve road safety and free up police resources for other priorities, the region will have a tough time convincing Queen’s Park.

“Ontario is not considering the reintroduction of photo radar at this time,” Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca, who is also the MPP for Vaughan, said in an email.

“Since 2003, our government has introduced a number of tough measures to improve road safety and keep communities and families safe, including targeting street racing and stunt driving with an immediate seven-day driver’s licence suspension and roadside vehicle impoundment, mandating zero blood alcohol for all drivers 21 and under, making speed limiters mandatory for trucks and banning the use of distracting hand-held devices while driving.”

While the government isn’t considering re-introducing photo radar, it does welcome proposals from municipalities that include measures for road safety, a ministry spokesperson said.

Saying there is no simple solution to speeding, the ministry is focused on a combination of strategies including legislation, public education and support for police enforcement efforts, he said.

Many people oppose photo radar because it unfairly penalizes the vehicle owner, who receives the ticket rather than the driver, who may have borrowed someone else’s car, Newmarket-Aurora MPP Chris Ballard said.

Meanwhile, the government is working with opposition parties to pass the Making Ontario’s Roads Safer Act, which will bring in tougher penalties for distracted drivers, he added.

The Canadian Automobile Association can see the pros and cons of photo radar and would want to further explore the issue with its members, government relations specialist Caroline Grech said.

Members are increasingly worried about road safety, with research indicating 61 per cent feel less safe while driving than they did five years ago, she said.

The CAA also appreciates the pressures on police departments to enforce road safety laws, Grech said.

The organization supports tying enforcement to public education about road safety, Grech said.

In 2012, the region’s police board joined a lobbying campaign among municipalities and agencies to convince the province to re-introduce photo radar but their plea fell on deaf ears.