Speed cameras pop up where you don't expect

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed how the proliferation of municipal speed cameras is making driving a bit unnerving on city streets?

These are not the cameras located at intersections to nab irresponsible drivers who jump red lights and cause collisions. Or cameras rightly installed in school zones to discourage speeding and protect children and other pedestrians. The cameras that are mushrooming all over the city in what are called “municipal safety zones” are meant to curb excessive speeding on neighbourhood streets — but are causing consternation among some commuters.

Don't get me wrong, road safety is of critical importance, and we should all applaud any government attempt to stop irresponsible drivers who speed and put lives in danger. But the thing with what the city calls “automated speed enforcement” cameras is that they are often on major roads such as Walkley Road, Hunt Club, Bronson Avenue and King Edward Avenue, where sometimes they catch you by surprise.

Of course, traffic experts are probably right to say that as a driver you have to be aware of all road signs. Indeed, ahead of installation signs warned of the imminent arrival of the cameras.

I hadn't really paid particular attention to these cameras until a few months ago, when I found myself at a gathering where some people were talking about “Big Brother” cameras on streets watching and invading your privacy. I didn't make much of it, until weeks later in a chat with some neighbours, when the issue came up again. One had been caught by one of the cameras. Another said he was on Walkley, unaware cameras had been installed, doing 53 km/h in a 50-km zone, and for weeks since has been dreading getting a ticket. At the time of

Soon, there probably won't be a street corner in Ottawa without a camera.

writing, he hadn't got one. But you may have.

By now I was intrigued, and went looking for the cameras. I drove around area streets, including Walkley, Smyth Road, Alta Vista Drive, Hunt Club Road, Heron Road and St. Laurent Boulevard, and indeed, cameras dotted these streets. I was familiar with those in school zones on Smyth and Alta Vista, but seeing Walkley, east of Conroy Road, named a “municipal safety zone” was a surprise.

I called the city to find out more, and learned that, so far, there are 40 cameras in municipal safety zones all over town, with about 20 more to come. Soon, there probably won't be a street corner in Ottawa without a camera. The city maintains that public safety is the only reason for them, even though fines from speed cameras brought in $9 million in 2022 and more than $11 million in 2023.

Krista Tanaka, the city's associate director of traffic services, said the cameras are helping to reduce speeding, pointing to data from a pilot project that showed a 200 per cent increase in compliance with the speed limit and a 72 per cent decrease in drivers travelling at 15 km/ hr over the posted speed limit. “Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras continue to show similar decrease in speed at locations across the city,” Tanaka said in an email. “With the program continuing to show success, the city is expanding the program with the goal of reducing risk for our most vulnerable road users.”

Are these cameras invading privacy? The answer is “no,” according to the Automated Speed Enforcement website. It says that the data from the cameras is encrypted and stored on a secure device, and once the information is downloaded, what's on the storage unit is erased. Besides, the ASE system is not video-based, and doesn't capture and store video image. Only the still image of a vehicle's licence plate is captured. Which means the ASE cameras are unlike CCTV cameras, which are often continuously shooting and capture and store video images in a target area.

That should ease privacy concerns, but clearly, the cameras are here to stay, so watch out for them before they get you.