The City of Toronto failed to issue 89,000 speeding tickets to drivers caught by cameras last year

The City of Toronto is working to speed up the process of issuing tickets to motorists caught by Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) devices, as recent data shows it failed to send out more than a quarter of all tickets issued to offenders in 2021.

Last year, the city said 89, 000 tickets went unissued because the 23-day threshold required for a ticket to be mailed out, as per provincial regulation, was exceeded.

“That’s unfortunate,” Carolyn Brimer, who lives near one of the devices near Donlands and Cosburn avenues. “It would be a good source of revenue and it really works as a deterrent.”

Another resident who lives nearby, Ryan Silver, told CTV News Toronto the unissued tickets were “ridiculous.”

“Why bring in the enforcement if you’re not going to issue the enforcement?”

The city cited the pandemic for the lag, specifically requirements around physical distancing in its processing centres leading to reduced staffing, adding that the software used to process charges can only be accessed on the premises.

The city successfully issued 251, 410 tickets using ASE devices last year.

The city has 50 cameras located in community safety zones near schools on local, community and arterial roads around the city. They are moved every three to six weeks.

Preliminary city data indicates the number of vehicles travelling above the speed limit decreased where cameras were placed since installation.

Resident Jessica Spieker said she was T-boned while riding her bike on a major street in 2015 and broke her spine.

Slowing traffic down is critical, she said, because, if people are hit, reduced speeds mean they’re more likely to survive.

She wants the province to give municipalities more power to issue tickets and expand the use of photo radar.

“Arterial roads comprise about 20 per cent of Toronto's roadways, but they are responsible for 80 per cent of vulnerable road user deaths. These are where the cameras are desperately needed,” she said.

Jessica Spieker (Beth Macdonell/CTV News Toronto)

The city said it implemented the ASE program in record time in 2020 and is making changes to speed up processing speeders caught by the cameras — adding an evening shift and moving up the relocation of its processing centre to a larger one.

In 2021, 27 pedestrians and one cyclist were killed on Toronto streets. In 2019, 39 pedestrians and one cyclist were killed.

The city said it’s anticipating a big increase in tickets being issued as pandemic restrictions lift.

SYSTEM HAVING ‘POSITIVE IMPACT ON DRIVER BEHAVIOUR’

Preliminary data from a Hospital for Sick Children study on the effectiveness of the ASE program shows initial signs of positive impacts on driver behaviour.

“For example, the number of vehicles travelling in excess of the posted speed limit decreased at the first round of locations during the July to November 2020 ticketing period, compared to the period when there were no ASE devices prior to 2019,” the city said in an email to CTV News Toronto Thursday.

“Early results also indicate that the average excess speed was reduced from 18 km/h to 6 km/h in 40 km/h speed limit zones and from 12 km/h to 9 km/h in 30 km/h speed limit zones.”