Photo radar to be in school zones this year, Tory vows

Mayor John Tory wants motorists who speed in school zones to receive "big, fat tickets" through photo radar, but Vision Zero Canada calls Toronto's pedestrian safety plan "scattershot."

Thestar.com
March 19, 2018
By David Rider

Starting this year photo radar in Toronto school zones will identify speeding motorists who will then be mailed "big fat tickets" for putting lives at risk, Mayor John Tory vowed Monday.

Tory made the pledge in Scarborough at a morning announcement of initiatives in a "Slow Down Toronto" campaign that comes amid a surge of pedestrian deaths on local streets.

"It is up to the people who drive cars in this city to take the first responsibility by changing their behaviour … They have to take first responsibility," and decide if the couple of minutes they might save speeding is worth the life of a child, the mayor told reporters.

Premier Kathleen Wynne announced legislation in November 2016, in reaction to a request from Tory, to allow municipalities to install safety cameras near schools to curb speeding and protect pedestrians and cyclists.

Tory said city and provincial officials are "tied up in some sort of regulatory hurdles," but he is putting "as much pressure as possible on the government of Ontario" to get photo radar in Toronto school zones in 2018. (Opinion polls say Wynne has an uphill battle to win the June 7 provincial election.)

The mayor added that he would be happy for motorists to be mailed a simple notice that they broke the law, until actual fines can be levied using the technology.

Toronto police will launch a blitz ending April 1 with officers "paying special attention to drivers, pedestrians and cyclists who commit traffic violations that may jeopardize pedestrian safety in school zones." It will include educating and ticketing drivers, and sometimes towing vehicles, in response to speeding, distracted or aggressive driving.

Other measures as part of the city's "Vision Zero" plan to eliminate pedestrian and cyclist deaths include a one-year pilot project with new "traffic-calming signs" in the middle of roadways in a dozen school zones across the city, and acceleration of a plan to retrofit 80 schools with an eye to safety.

Toronto police Deputy Chief Peter Yuen told reporters many pedestrian deaths have happened in Scarborough because of wide roads with big gaps between crosswalks. The victims are often senior citizens or children.

Motorists have killed a dozen Toronto pedestrians this year, including a woman who walked on provincially controlled Hwy. 401. They also include Duncan Xu, 11, hit and killed in late February while crossing Canongate Trail going home from Kennedy Public School in Scarborough.

Hours after Tory spoke to reporters, a 3-year-old boy was rushed to hospital with serious injuries after a motorist struck him in at a crosswalk at Dundas St. E. and George St.

Graham Larkin, executive director of Vision Zero Canada, said improved road design and the regulation of vehicles, not traditional safety blitzes that target pedestrians and cyclists as well as motorists, will reduce road carnage.

"It's been almost two years since John Tory made his commitment to zero traffic deaths in five years, yet the rate of road violence continues to soar," Larkin wrote in an email. He added that bike lanes protected by flexible posts in school zones would slow traffic better and discourage illegal stops.

"Instead, the city's measly safety budget is squandered on pointless education, scattershot enforcement and some rather vague promises of future design improvements."