Outside of community safety zones, four new cameras will be put up
Installing speed cameras outside of community safety zones is meant to keep speeders in check on dangerous stretches of road, but one Ottawa city councillor thinks that some of his colleagues see the cameras as a way to raise money.
Under the Ontario Highway Traffic Act, photo radar speed cameras are only allowed in school zones or places called “community safety zones.” Municipalities, on the other hand, can choose to install cameras on their own if they think “public safety is of special concern.”
Last week, the City of Ottawa announced 17 new places for speed cameras. Eleven of them are in school zones, and two are near parks and playgrounds. Four will be put up in places where people think speeding is a problem.
Councillor Kanata North Allan Hubley says he is worried that his coworkers will use the cameras to spend money as well as for safety.
Hubley said, “Like a lot of other people, I’m very worried that some people at the council table might see this as a chance to get a lot of money to pay for whatever special programs they want to pay for.”
The four new cameras that will be put in places outside of safety zones will be:
- Hunt Club Road is between Lorry Greenberg Drive and Pike Street.
- Between Harding Road and Halifax Drive, you can find Walkley Road.
- From Ogilvie Road to Foxborough Private and all the way to Bethamy Lane is Montreal Road.
- Between Cathcart and St. Patrick streets, you can find King Edward Avenue.
Hubley said he likes the idea of more cameras in school zones, but he thinks the plan to test putting them on city streets is part of a plot to get more money.
Hubley said, “It’s just a lot of speeders, so we’re going to make a lot of money.”
Other council members are in favor of cameras
Jessica Bradley is a council member for the Gloucester-Southgate Ward. The Hunt Club Road camera will be in her ward. She thinks that the safety benefits of more speed cameras outweigh any other concerns.
“An Ottawa police officer can’t be at the corner every day,” she said. “So, I think this is one tool the city can use to get people to follow the rules.”
Bradley said that the part of Hunt Club Road near Highway 417 has been a problem ever since it became possible to get to Highway 417 about a decade ago.
“This place is busy.” “But it’s not just a road; it’s also a street that people in the neighborhood use,” she told me.
Bradley also said that the goal of the camera program is not to bring in more money but rather to “encourage compliance.”
In the same way, River ward councillor Riley Brockington said he is happy to have the camera in his ward, which is close to Mooney’s Bay park, where there are often events, especially in the warmer months.
“They turn into real racetracks at night in the summer,” he said.
Brockington had asked the Ontario government to let cities and towns use the technology when he spoke before the provincial legislature at Queen’s Park.
“The provincial government has always been worried that cities and towns would take advantage of the technology and power and put them everywhere,” he said. “That’s not what they mean.” In Ottawa, we would never do that. “With red light cameras, we haven’t done that.”
Brockington said that there are still limits on how the speed cameras can be used, and he doesn’t agree with Hubley that they are just money-making schemes.
He said that cities must let drivers know when they are entering a speed enforcement zone and that any money made can only be used to make roads safer.