Crack down on speeders
Something a little unexpected and very unfortunate has happened on Toronto roads since the pandemic shutdown thinned traffic.
Drivers are treating stop signs as optional, more than ever before. It’s as though a proper stop is now a mere suggestion rather than a hard and fast rule. Pedestrian crossings, too. Even red lights don’t seem to read quite as red as they used to. And driving speeds have gone up — way up. Too many drivers have reacted to relatively clear roads free of the usual gridlocked traffic, not by happily going on their way at the speed limit, but by pushing the pedal to the metal.
Just about anyone who has been walking, cycling or driving in Toronto (and, no doubt, a good many other cities) in the last few months has an anecdote or two about experiencing or witnessing a scary moment because of a driver speeding or blatantly breaking the rules of the road.
Police and the city have actual data that shows this feeling that many people have that there’s more speedy and reckless driving is not just a figment of their imagination. It’s a real and widespread problem.
Thankfully, starting on Monday, Toronto will start issuing actual tickets — rather than just warnings as it has been doing — when the city’s 50 photo radar cameras positioned primarily in school zones clock speeders. This is a welcome and long overdue step.
From late January to mid-June, cameras at just nine sites in the city detected more than 140,000 speeders. Some of them driving at terrifying speeds — more than 100 km/h over the speed limit on residential streets, for example.
And things got worse with the pandemic shutdown that emptied out many roads and changed travel patterns. Toronto police recorded a 600 per cent increase in stunt driving — that’s 50 km/h or more over the speed limit — between late March and late April.
Toronto, of course, isn’t the only city that has a problem with speed.
In March, tickets issued for stunt driving were up 60 per cent in York Region, compared to March 2019.
In April, York Region police issued three stunt driving charges in a single half-hour period on a Thursday afternoon with drivers clocked at more than double the speed limit.
In May, the OPP arrested a teenager for driving a whopping three times the 100km/h speed limit on the QEW.
Toronto Mayor John Tory has called speeding an “epidemic” on city streets.
“We need these cameras and the fines that go with them to get people to smarten up,” Tory said.
He’s right. But we need more than just these few cameras narrowly focused on school and community safety zones.
The city needs to work with the province, which still controls the usage of photo radar, to quickly expand the use of these cameras.
Given the behaviour we witness daily, it’s time to use photo radar on more roads known to have significant speeding problems, not just in a few school and community safety zones. This isn’t a cash grab; it’s a necessary safety measure. We can’t afford to keep treating dangerous driving behaviour, including reckless speeding and blatant disregard for traffic laws, so causally. The consequences of dangerous driving are deadly.
Pedestrian deaths in Toronto have more than doubled from 2010 to 2019. There were 42 last year.
Starting Monday at least some of the drivers who choose to speed recklessly through school and community safety zones in Toronto will find a steep fine in the mail for it.
That’s an important advance. But it’s still only the first step. Photo radar needs to be implemented far more broadly in Toronto, and beyond, than is currently happening.
Some drivers will complain but the speedsters who have recklessly taken advantage of open roads have only themselves to blame.
It’s time to give drivers a stronger financial encouragement to do the right thing.