25 new speed cameras coming online in Toronto over the next 2 weeks

Speed enforcement cameras in Toronto are occasionally taken offline for calibration and "ticket issuance quality." Mark McAllister looks at what that means for drivers and potential lost revenue for the city.

The City of Toronto is expanding its Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) program with a new round of cameras starting to come online this week.

The expansion means 25 new cameras across the city — one for each ward. The latest devices will join the other 50 that are currently in rotation to help reduce speeding.

Warning signs have been up since early November at the new locations. The signs must be up for 90-days before the cameras come online, the city started posting the warnings on Nov. 2, 2022 — it will take approximately two weeks for all new devices to be fully activated.

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“There have been people killed, there have been people injured,” said Mayor John Tory speaking from Marshall McLuhan secondary school on Avenue Road north of Eglinton, the site of one of the new cameras.

“You can even see from the speed at which the cars are going by that it is a challenge here, as it is in many parts of the city.”


Locations for 25 new automated speed cameras:


Each city ward will now have three speed cameras that are mainly focused in school zones. Tory says he wants add even more speed cameras to make good on an election promise.

“This is just the beginning,” Tory says. “I did promise to bring the total number of cameras in the city to 150 during this term.”

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The mayor says the 2023 budget includes more investments, $72.8 million, into the city’s Vision Zero initiative than any previous year. Neatly $14 million of the investment will go toward red light and speed cameras.

The original 50 speed cameras are now into their sixth round of locations.


New locations for 50 existing automated speed cameras:


The camera on Parkside Drive, south of Algonquin Avenue, was the only device to not rotate last fall. That camera was responsible for dolling out the most tickets through the last three months of 2022.

Following a fatal crash last October, there were calls to improve safety along that stretch of Parkside Drive. Residents have long called for photo radar and a redesign of the roadway.

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In total, the city’s Automated Speed Enforcement Program issued over 55,000 tickets from October to December. The most frequent repeat offender was ticketed 25 times for speeding Stilecroft Drive west of Sharpecroft Boulevard in the city’s west-end.

The city says the highest recorded speed detected during this period was 146 km/h in a 50 km/h speed limit zone on Martin Grove Road in north Etobicoke.