Mayor Tory calls for faster expansion of speed camera program
Posted January 11, 2022 10:45 am.
Last Updated January 11, 2022 11:53 am.
Toronto Mayor John Tory wants the City to speed up plans to slow down drivers.
Tory has penned a letter to the city’s Infrastructure and Environment Committee, calling for the quicker expansion of Toronto’s speed camera program.
In the letter, Tory said he is “proud to have championed” the program and wants an additional 25 cameras up and running as soon as possible this year. The current plan calls for the cameras to be up by 2023.
Tory urged the Committee to ask City Staff and Transportation Services “to immediately advance work to expand the program further at the earliest possible date.”
“It will send a clear message to drivers that they must slow down and obey the speed limits across our city,” he said.
Infrastructure and Environment Committee Chair, Jennifer McKelvie, put forward a motion in council on Tuesday to expedite the process. The motion carried.
Today, I sent a letter to the Infrastructure and Environment committee supporting the further expansion of the speed camera program on our streets. pic.twitter.com/ob4MK2iNd5
— John Tory (@JohnTory) January 11, 2022
Fifty speed cameras are already up and running in Toronto and Tory said preliminary data shows a “positive impact on driver behaviour … pointing to increased compliance with speed limits and a reduction in speeding.”
“It is reducing speeds near schools in Community Safety Zones. It’s clear that when these cameras go up, drivers slow down,” Tory stressed.
Ticketing began in July 2020 after municipalities received permission from the province to deploy the cameras.
A report released last October showed just how effective the cameras are at nabbing speeders, with 36,700 tickets issued over just a two-month period last July and August.
