Vision Zero plan lacks enforcement, critics say
Number of tickets issued for speeding and running lights has declined since 2015
It doesn’t take a radar gun to see that plenty of drivers on Avenue Rd. are speeding.
Albert Koehl says all you have to do is stand on a corner to realize that, despite a posted limit of 50 kilometres per hour, many motorists use the sixlane arterial road that cuts through residential areas north of Bloor St. “as a speedway.”
The high speeds and narrow sidewalks make Avenue Rd. “a frightening place to be,” said Koehl, the vice-chair of the Annex Residents’ Association.
“That’s not the kind of environment we should have in our neighbourhoods,” Koehl said, noting there are several schools and seniors residences in the area.
A city study last year found that speeding on Avenue Rd. is common, with 15 per cent of drivers travelling at least 18 km/h above the limit on some stretches.
The Annex association and other local groups have “asked for more enforcement, and they haven’t gotten it,” Koehl said.
The reality is speeders in Toronto are increasingly unlikely to be punished for breaking the rules.
Enforcement is supposed to be one the four key pillars of the Vision Zero road safety plan, endorsed by city council in 2016. But according to Toronto police statistics, between 2009 and 2017, the number of provincial offences tickets issued fell by 62.5 per cent, to 233,651 from 623,712.
Since 2015, the number of speeding tickets dropped 7.8 per cent, while tickets for disobeying traffic lights fell 8.3 per cent. (Tickets for other moving violations increased by about 6.6 per cent over the same period).
In an email, police spokesperson Meaghan Gray said the force has “moved to a more strategic-based approach to traffic enforcement.”
“This may result in fewer tickets, but enforcement is only part of road safety,” she said. Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) argues that “a serious lack of police enforcement” is contributing to what he describes as Vision Zero’s “failure” so far.
“It’s important for city hall to set the rules with lower speed limits, as it is important to design and reconfigure the streets,” he said. “But another pillar of Vision Zero is enforcement, and that’s missing from the equation.”
Matlow says a major problem is the lack of traffic enforcement officers.
Supt. Scott Baptist, unit commander of Toronto police traffic services, confirmed that while some of the force’s17 divisions have “possibly one or two” officers whose main responsibility is enforcement of local traffic complaints, “these officers are routinely utilized for other assignments as well.”
Matlow’s ward is in 53 Division, which covers about 30 square kilometres in the centre of the city, between Lawrence Ave. and Bloor St. Having only two officers focused on enforcement across an area that large is “undeniably insufficient,” the councillor argued.
Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Associa- tion, says the problem is a lack of officers.
In 2016, Toronto police instituted a hiring freeze to reduce the number of officers to fewer than 4,800 by 2019, from the average deployed complement of more than 5,600 in 2010.
Although the hiring freeze was temporarily lifted last year, McCormack said officers no longer have time for “proactive policing” activities like stopping bad drivers.
“If I’m going from call to call, I’m not going to be spending time looking for traffic violations or setting up at a busy intersection. I just don’t have time or the resources to do that,” he said.
Critics counter that the force has an adequate number of officers but has refused to implement policy changes that would allow for a more efficient deployment.
Police, councillors and road safety advocates have all proposed automated technology, such as red light cameras and photo radar, as a low-cost way to increase enforcement. The city has already doubled its red light camera program, and now has the devices at about 150 locations.
Photo radar has proven effective in jurisdictions such as Edmonton, where a study found it reduced the number of fatal or serious injury collisions by almost one-third.
Toronto intends to conduct a pilot project of photo radar in four school and community safety zones this year, but a wider deployment would require the assent of Ontario’s new Progressive Conservative government, which is not assured.
Even if the approval is granted, a 2016 city of Toronto report warned that implementing automated enforcement would not be simple.
The city would need to hire additional provincial offences officers to review camera foot- age, and courts would require more resources.
Video evidence for some traffic violations, such as stop sign and turning infractions, would probably be easily challenged in court and automated enforcement of those offences would likely “not be economically feasible,” the report determined.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Mayor John Tory did not say whether the mayor believes a lack of enforcement is undermining the road safety plan.
Don Peat described Tory as “a relentless advocate for more traffic enforcement and more automated enforcement,” and cited his support for council’s approval last week of an additional $22 million for Vision Zero as evidence of his commitment.
“As the mayor has said many times, he’s open to any solutions that help get Toronto moving and make our roads safer,” Peat said.