Toronto’s photo radar program has generated a lot of money, but isn’t slowing traffic like it used to

Almost three years in, the automated speed enforcement program is catching more drivers than ever.

Smile, Toronto drivers. You’re on camera.

Toronto’s automated speed enforcement program — otherwise known as photo radar — will celebrate its third birthday this year. Since the city started installing their non-descript grey automated speeding ticket machines near schools in July 2020, the program has nabbed more than a half-million speeding cars, issuing 593,193 tickets, according to data released by the city and last updated through November 2022.

Note: This article was originally published in early 2023 and since then the dataset presented on the map has been updated through at least September 2023.

According to the city, the average fine amount is $107.32, so the program has generated estimated potential revenues of about $63.7 million to date.

The city initially ordered 50 of the camera machines. They’ve recently started to roll out an additional 25. Because Toronto has more locations with speeding cars than Toronto currently has speed cameras, the machines’ locations are generally rotated every few months.

Top cash cows

Some of these camera locations have proven to be massive cash cows.

A camera at Sheppard Ave. E. and Don Mills Rd., for example, issued 21,288 tickets over five months of service between Dec. 2020 and May 2021, generating approximately $2.3 million in potential tickets alone. It’s the reigning champ for most charges.

Other snap-happy photo radar spots include the camera installed on Parkside Dr., just south of Algonquin Ave. It generated 17,596 charges totalling an estimated $1.9 million since its installation in April 2022.

The Parkside-Algonquin camera’s numbers were so strong the city opted to leave it in place beyond the typical four- or five-month period before rotation. It’s currently in the silver-medal position for most charges issued, but given that it’s still active today, it still has time to take the all-time crown.

Third place goes to the camera on McCowan Rd., just north of Kenhatch Blvd., in Scarborough, which brought in 13,908 charges generating an estimated $1.5 million in fines between Dec. 2020 and May 2021.

These numbers don’t tell the whole story. The machines will lead to traffic tickets — fines only, no demerit points — for owners whose vehicles are snapped doing up to 49 km/h above the posted speed limit. If a car or truck is clocked going faster than that, the vehicle owner will instead receive a summons ordering them to go before a judge and explain why their vehicle was going so darn fast.

The city had clocked 247 mega-speedsters in 2022 as of the end of September. The fastest car among this group was clocked doing 146 km/h in a 50 km/h zone on Martin Grove Rd. in Etobicoke.

"Four cameras were the victim of a heist — vanishing from their podiums even though each camera weighs more than 800 pounds!"

Unpopular, but effective — to a point

Toronto’s photo radar program isn’t likely to win any awards for popularity. As soon as the machines began to appear, angry residents started expressing their frustration. Machines were tagged with spray paint in attempts to block camera lenses. Some were beaten and battered in acts of vandalism. At least one was set on fire. And another four were the victim of a heist — vanishing from their podiums even though each camera weighs more than 800 pounds. (And probably isn’t really valuable on the resale market — would there be any takers on Craigslist?)

The program was never designed to be popular with drivers, though. Instead, the goal was to reduce speeds in a city with too many deaths and serious injuries happening on its streets.

From that perspective, the program is working, though there are signs that the effectiveness may be starting to wane.

The average photo radar camera installation that began in 2020 saw about a 17 per cent reduction in the number of tickets issued on a monthly basis, comparing the first month of operation with data from four months in. The numbers seemed to indicate that drivers would realize the cameras were operational, and slow down. At least in the area around the cameras.

That changed in 2021, with the average decline shrinking to 9 per cent. And in 2022, it fell to just 4 per cent, even as the average number of monthly charges grew to an all-time high.

Comparing data from the first three years of the program, the average number of tickets issued per month has grown from 14,189 in 2020 to 20,914 in 2021 to 23,372 in 2022 (through November).

The estimated average monthly fine revenue has grown accordingly.

*Program launched July 2020; **Through Nov.

A win for road safety, but for how long?

These trends may be cause for concern for road safety advocates, even if they have no sympathy for the car owners receiving tickets in the mail. That’s because an earlier attempt at using photo radar on provincial highways in the 1990s was scuttled after public backlash. People saw it as a cash grab more than an effort to enhance safety.

The 20-years-later resurrection of photo radar started on more solid footing, opting to focus on roads in designated “community safety zones” near schools with lots of pedestrian and cyclist traffic, instead of highways. Still, Mayor John Tory was clear when the program launched that he didn’t want it to become a major revenue generator.

“I always said that my objective would be to have these photo radar automated speed enforcement machines issuing no tickets because that would mean people weren’t speeding,” Tory told CP24 in a January 2021 interview.

Almost three years later, the objective of having cameras that issue zero tickets has not been achieved — though there was one machine installed near Vaughan Rd. and Bansley Ave. that issued a grand total of only three speeding tickets between June 2021 and October 2021. In aggregate, the city seems to be moving further away from Tory’s goal.

One explanation may be that City Hall is slow to respond to speeding hotspots identified by the cameras. Along Parkside Dr., for example, the community has long decried the design of the road for encouraging high-speed traffic. The camera installed there backed up the community observation, racking up thousands of charges.

But the process for making physical changes to the road that could result in slower speeds — things like narrowing the roadway, creating some curves, or installing more traffic lights — has been mired in a slow, bureaucratic process, with two rounds of public consultation surveys and a design process. From beginning to end, real infrastructure improvements to the street will take at least three years to go from idea to action.

Multiply that slow process across dozens of streets that could use safety interventions and the time adds up. For City Hall, the challenge remains matching the pace of change to the speed of traffic. Until then, engines keep revving, the cameras keep snapping, and the money keeps rolling in.

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