MONEYGRAB as traffic cameras being installed at Royal York and Norseman. Photos by Tom Godfrey.
TRAFFIC CAMERAS coming to show down traffic on Royal York Rd., near Norseman Road.
Area motorists are being warned of a new automated traffic camera system being installed on a slow strip of Royal York Road, near Norseman Street.
Signs have been installed in the area warning both north and southbound motorists of the upcoming traffic camera installations, which is close to two schools.
The area was a popular spot for Toronto Police radar cops due to the many lead-footed motorists who were ticketed for speeding in a school zone.
The city’s red light camera program, which initially started as a pilot project in 1998, entered into a new five-year plan in 2017. The city now employs more than 70 of the cameras in school and other zones.
The city on its website state that Automated Enforcement is a tool that uses technology to alter driver behaviour by enforcing the applicable traffic law.
“Automated Enforcement is used to reduce the prevalence of excessive speeding and the running of red lights to improve roadway safety for all road users, especially our most vulnerable,” according to city officials.
More than 53,000 tickets have been issued to drivers caught speeding by Toronto’s newly installed speed cameras during the first round of enforcement, according to police.
The city generates millions of dollars in revenues from the issuing of tickets. Some cameras generate more than 30,000 tickets monthly.
The fines that accompany the tickets are steeper in proportion to the speed. They start at $5 per kph over the speed limit, with the fine reaching up to $12 per KPH between 30 and 49 kph over.
The top-earning speed cameras in Etobicoke includes one at Renforth Drive, near Lafferty Street, in Etobicoke Centre, that issued the most tickets with more than 5,400.
The camera at Trehorne Drive, near Duffield Road, was second with 1,677, according to city figures, while another at Horner Avenue, near Orianna Drive, was third with 1,358 tickets.
Other camera locations in this area includes Lake Shore Blvd. W., near Twentieth Street, Algoma Street, east of Royal York Road; La Rose Avenue, east of Griggsden Avenue; The East Mall, south of Capri Road and two locations in Etobicoke North.