Opinion: Why Are We Even Discussing Speed Enforcement Cameras?

As wars rage and wildfires burn, there’s a debate brewing in the Toronto area about a subject far less sinister: speed cameras.

It’s a discussion that was triggered — in part, anyway — by one particular camera positioned along Parkside Drive in the city’s west end, which has been cut down a half-dozen times and counting. The perpetrator — or perpetrators; police have yet to lay any charges in the matter, at least at the time of this writing — is being celebrated in some corners as a kind of Robin Hood character who’s sticking up for the little guy in the face of government overreach.

In the midst of this serial vandalism came the news that camera-based fines would be paused in Vaughan, Ont., after more than 32,000 tickets were issued during a three-week span in that neighbouring city to the north of Toronto. Mayor Steven Del Duca said the decision was made in response to complaints regarding “fairness” of the rollout of the 10 cameras, which, it’s worth noting, are well signed and were preceded by months of advanced notice, as required by law.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s decision to wade into the debate has only muddied the waters, what with him being the province’s most powerful politician and all, referring to them as a “revenue source” for municipalities rather than a public safety measure. In doing so, he’s joined the cash-grab chorus line — and missed the points entirely in the process.

A speed camera located in downtown Toronto.

The first one is financial. Yes, Toronto’s speed enforcement cameras have generated what seems at first glance like a significant revenue stream, including nearly $40 million in fines last year alone. But then that total — which doesn’t all go to city coffers in the first place — amounts to less than a quarter of a percent of the city’s 2024 operating budget of $17.1 billion, making it barely more than a rounding error rather than the cash grab critics claim.

More importantly, enforcement cameras aren’t part of a slippery slope towards Orwellian rule — they’re proven to be effective when it comes to reducing incidents of speeding. According to the Toronto Star, in the case of one particular camera in Vaughan, the number of recorded infractions dropped from 4,482 in the first week of enforcement to 1,994 in the third — right before Del Duca ordered the program’s pause.

Data from Toronto’s own Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) program — which is a rather clunky catch-all for its photo radar cameras — covering the period from January 2020 to December 2022 found a 45 per cent reduction in the proportion of drivers who were speeding where cameras were present. In 40-km/h zones, for example, the percentage of drivers travelling at speeds beyond the posted limit decreased from 51 to 30.

Of course, there are those who claim the lower speed limits that have become more common in recent years are arbitrary — but then that ignores data to the contrary. In a document shared by the city of Yorkton, Sask., pedestrians have a survival rate of 90 per cent when struck by a vehicle travelling at speeds of 30 km/h or slower. That decreases to 50 per cent at 45 km/h, and almost zero at 80 km/h.

Others choose a de minimis-adjacent argument — essentially, that a police officer is unlikely to stop a driver at just a few kilometres beyond the limit, therefore, camera-based enforcement at similar speeds is unreasonable. But posted speed limits aren’t some kind of social contract — they’re written into law as the maximum permissible rate of travel without risking a fine. Just because a cop might not strictly enforce it doesn’t mean they can’t if they so choose.

Nobody likes paying fines, but there’s a tried and true method to avoiding them altogether, and it applies to all roads — not just the ones monitored by enforcement cameras: observe the posted speed limit. It’s really that simple.