[txlseries4]

Astounding stuff from this gov't. Can only imagine the totally ineffective "solutions" they propose. They don't want cities to put in bike lanes or other redesigns that remove a lane for cars, and don't want speed cameras... What's left? A bunch of fluorescent signs that everyone will ignore?

"In an email on Tuesday, Dakota Brasier, spokesperson for Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, said the province will take steps later this year to get rid of speed cameras.

"We are exploring alternative tools to enhance traffic safety without the use of automatic speed cameras that are nothing but a cash grab. We want to see cities take steps to remove them, otherwise we are prepared to help get rid of them when the House returns in the Fall," Brasier said."
article

 

[junctionist]

100% this. It's an optional tax

Speed cameras are a sort of tax on inattentiveness, which is often a factor in negligent driving that results in accidents. Speed cameras aren't a panacea for safe streets--an attentive speeder can just slow down for the signs to avoid fines before speeding up again in an area they know is without cameras. However, speed cameras help catch the worst speeders who are also not paying attention to street signs or going too fast to read them.

What I don't get about Toronto's problem with speed camera vandalism is that there's a different model of camera that's available that's much less susceptible to it that no one seems to talk about. Brampton has a version that's mounted above street level. It's called the Jenoptik Vector SR.

 

[zang]

What I don't get about Toronto's problem with speed camera vandalism is that there's a different model of camera that's available that's much less susceptible to it that no one seems to talk about. Brampton has a version that's mounted above street level. It's called the Jenoptik Vector SR.

Toronto’s are under contract and repairs are part of that contract. So why switch to something different when you don’t have to pay for the repairs due to vandalism?

I mean, it’s dumb, but I get it.

 

[wopchop]

Toronto’s are under contract and repairs are part of that contract. So why switch to something different when you don’t have to pay for the repairs due to vandalism?

I mean, it’s dumb, but I get it.

Cost is one factor. But the vandalism brings bad press, and bad press is what leads to Doug Ford yapping about stuff.

 

[guavadelic]

STOP signs seem to be a suggestion these days. I was crossing a street recently and this Karen in her Tesla Model S, rolled through the stop sign up to my kneecaps as i was crossing! I looked over at her and she sarcastically does the "come on hurry up" wave, i flipped her the bird and she rolled down the window and screamed at me lol. I guess she was in a big hurry to sit in traffic lol

On a related note, I wouldn't mind if the city banned right turns on red. Folks never stop, they just roll through and turn. Can't count how many times i've seen pedestrians almost get killed.

 

[wopchop]

On a related note, I wouldn't mind if the city banned right turns on red. Folks never stop, they just roll through and turn. Can't count how many times i've seen pedestrians almost get killed.

Pedestrians, cyclists face daily danger at intersections, reveals CAA study | CAA North & East Ontario

Have you ever had a close call while crossing the street or cycling, barely avoiding a vehicle? You're not alone. Near misses and potentially serious incidents

caaneo.ca

Serious near-misses most often involve vehicles turning right, accounting for 55 per cent of pedestrian and 50 per cent of cyclist conflicts. Left-turning cars are responsible for over a third of the incidents, affecting 34 per cent of pedestrians and 36 per cent of cyclists. Only 11 per cent of conflicts involve vehicles travelling straight. According to the City of Ottawa, 54 per cent of all fatal or major injuries in the city between 2019 and 2023 occurred at or near an intersection.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Looks like the Republicans in the USA are copying Doug Ford's desires....

Republicans in Washington are harnessing the gripes of speeding suburban drivers across the nation with a new proposal to defund the 26-year-old traffic enforcement camera program in the nation's capital and override the city's law banning right turns on red.

What else does Doug Ford have up his sleeves?

Speed, red light, stop sign, school bus stop-arm and bus priority enforcement cameras have been a longtime bugaboo of the House GOP, whose members pushed a similar provision in 2023 that failed to become law. Trump's latest intervention in the city's self-governance in the name of public safety breathed new life into the effort, say Washingtonians.

See https://usa.streetsblog.org/2025/09/10/republicans-target-d-c-traffic-cameras-and-right-on-red-ban-amid-trump-takeover

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Today at a media event, Doug Ford, in response to a Crown Royal bottler closing down Ontario plant, shifting some operations to U.S., said "A message to the CEO in France, you hurt my people, I'm gonna hurt you." and then after he literally pulled out a bottle, turned it upside down and poured it out as he said, "This is what I think about Crown Royal. That's what they could do and I think everyone else should do the same thing"

And people wonder how he stays so popular

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

Astounding stuff from this gov't. Can only imagine the totally ineffective "solutions" they propose. They don't want cities to put in bike lanes or other redesigns that remove a lane for cars, and don't want speed cameras... What's left? A bunch of fluorescent signs that everyone will ignore?

"In an email on Tuesday, Dakota Brasier, spokesperson for Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria, said the province will take steps later this year to get rid of speed cameras.

"We are exploring alternative tools to enhance traffic safety without the use of automatic speed cameras that are nothing but a cash grab. We want to see cities take steps to remove them, otherwise we are prepared to help get rid of them when the House returns in the Fall," Brasier said."
article

…what load of ole goat’s bullocks!

 

[zang]

…what load of ole goat’s bullocks!

Next thing you know, ticketing for failing to stop at a red or illegal parking will suddenly get labelled a "cash grab" and a tacit green light will be given to drivers.

 

[guavadelic]

Stephen Lecce has been making the media rounds expressing disappointment that Carney's major projects list doesn't include the proposed giant nuclear plant in Port Hope.

 

[Monarch Butterfly]

Opinion —— Doug Ford’s seat-of-the-pants policy making has the Ontario premier praising criminals​

From https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/doug-ford-s-seat-of-the-pants-policy-making-has-the-ontario-premier-praising-criminals/article_e12db6c6-0047-40d1-9b82-a07446fa2da8.html

Why has Doug Ford seemingly declared himself a supporter of criminals?

About two weeks ago, the Ontario premier was loudly proclaiming his tough-on-crime convictions and support for residents who would defend themselves against home invaders, calling for tougher punishments for lawbreakers and tighter bail conditions for arrestees. “Enough is enough,” he told reporters.

Less than a week later, an ongoing crime wave in Toronto crested: 16 speed cameras were cut down in one night, the latest in a string of high-profile incidents of vandalism that have been making our streets more dangerous.

Asked about it last week, Ford suggested that the perpetrator (or perpetrators) had provided a public service — and that he’d soon join them in taking down even more speed cameras. Municipal governments “should take out those cameras, all of them,” he said. If they don’t, he warned, “I’m going to help them get rid of them very shortly.”

Given that a small child was killed and several others injured when a driver crashed his car through the window of a daycare in Richmond Hill last week, most of us know how high the stakes are when it comes to traffic safety. So what’s up with Ford insisting our streets become less safe and cheering on the vandals who are making them more deadly?

The charitable interpretation is that he doesn’t understand that speed cameras work. There’s a massive body of evidence from across North America, as well as right here in Toronto, that shows they do: by helping to prevent speeding, they help to prevent collisions and injuries and deaths, too.

But there’s every reason to believe that Ford already knows this and simply doesn’t care, just as he’s shown he doesn’t care that bike lanes save lives. When he talks about these things, he doesn’t even mention safety in passing. He just wants cars to move faster.

Presumably, that’s because he wants to do what voters will like — that’s his whole thing, right? Folksy populism? Well, maybe there’s something else Ford should understand about speed cameras: people like them. A lot of people. From what I can tell, most people.

Polling by the Canadian Automobile Association this summer shows that 76 per cent of Ontario drivers believe speed cameras work, while 73 per cent are in favour of placing more of them in targeted areas, such as school zones and near community centres.

To be clear: this is a survey of licensed drivers, conducted by an organization whose mandate is to advocate for drivers. This is not “war on the car” propaganda. “Our research shows that (speed-camera enforcement) continues to have strong public support and can be effective in getting drivers to change their behaviour,” a CAA spokesperson said in announcing the results.

This has been consistent across North America. Last month, an article in Bloomberg Businessweek rounded up research from across the United States that shows a majority of Americans support the use of speed cameras. As the author writes, such support “can transcend party lines and geography.”

Now, I know there are people who hate speed cameras (and I know most of us hate getting tickets from them — which, as I’ve noted before, is something different). I often hear from drivers who think they constitute a form of tyranny, and I suspect the premier hears a lot from them, too. The intensity and volume of their whining may even lead him to believe that they’re speaking for most voters.

It’s unlikely that they are. Many drivers speed on occasion: in the CAA poll, 40 per cent of respondents admitted to having done so in the past year. But most of us also realize it’s dangerous and welcome measures to prevent it. It’s only a small minority of drivers who seem to believe it’s their absolute right to race past schools and public parks in residential zones. It’s an even smaller one who apparently feel justified in committing brazen crimes to prevent enforcement.

To the rest of us, these vandals aren’t folk heroes standing up for the silent majority. They’re jerks. Criminal jerks, no less. And it would appear that’s who Ford thinks his voters are.

 

[afransen]

Compliance through enforcement is driven by two factors: probability of being caught in an infraction multiplied by the penalty for being caught. Fines are set high to offset the general lack of enforcement. Perhaps the reason why people are so upset with the speed cameras is that we are applying a fine set in the context of broadly non-existent enforcement (so on the higher side) and applying it, with little margin of grace, in a place where the probability of enforcement is nearly 100%. Maybe the answer is to have the cameras generate lots of warnings, and reduced fines, and only the frequent/flagrant offenders should get the full whack of fines.

I think that generally, a speed camera that is capturing a lot of infractions is really just a symptom of bad design. Most people will generally follow the rules and operate in a way that feels safe for the design presented to them. The roadway needs a design change if we want the speed to be reduced. Cameras are a 'r/ThereIFixedIt' solution to road safety.

 

[afransen]

To add, I think Doug operates from a place of saying whatever the working class, middle age male with two kids and a truck living in the suburbs wants to hear. He's hard on crime when it is crime this group doesn't like. He's against 'unreasonable rules' when it is something this group doesn't want to be penalized for.

 

[T3G]

Compliance through enforcement is driven by two factors: probability of being caught in an infraction multiplied by the penalty for being caught. Fines are set high to offset the general lack of enforcement. Perhaps the reason why people are so upset with the speed cameras is that we are applying a fine set in the context of broadly non-existent enforcement (so on the higher side) and applying it, with little margin of grace, in a place where the probability of enforcement is nearly 100%. Maybe the answer is to have the cameras generate lots of warnings, and reduced fines, and only the frequent/flagrant offenders should get the full whack of fines.

I think that generally, a speed camera that is capturing a lot of infractions is really just a symptom of bad design. Most people will generally follow the rules and operate in a way that feels safe for the design presented to them. The roadway needs a design change if we want the speed to be reduced. Cameras are a 'r/ThereIFixedIt' solution to road safety.

Especially considering that there is a point of income reached at which speeding fines are viewed simply as the 'cost of doing business'. We've tried nothing, and we're all out of ideas.

It's the same thing as the debate about fare evasion on the TTC, and the factor of poor station design in many places not having fare gates at every possible entrance to the station. Issuing tickets to scofflaws might make you feel good, but the best way to actually modify behaviours is to remove the option to misbehave in the first place.