In the west end of Toronto there’s a lovely city street. Tree lined on one side, it’s arrow-straight with gentle hills. Four lanes wide with plenty of room for cars and busses, the appropriately named Parkside Dr. starts at Lake Shore and continues to all points north. It’s one of the few arterial routes that directly connects the downtown Gardiner Expressway and the midtown Hwy 401.
Any reasonable driver would assume the speed limit is 60 km/h on Parkside because that’s the ‘design speed‘ of the road.
Based on the width and shape, a reasonable person would drive 60 km/h and never think for a moment they were speeding. It’s the same size a highway in many parts of the world. If Parkside was narrower, or had sharp curves, drivers would instinctively lower their speed to account for those physical features.
So when the City of Toronto dropped the speed limit to 40 km/h and put up speed enforcement cameras, thousands of drivers got ticketed unfairly. In 2½ years, over 63,600 speeding tickets have been issued on Parkside, generating $6,805,000 in revenue for the City of Toronto.
Many motorists caught out by the unreasonably low speed limit consider this speed camera an illegal tax, and have fought back by repeatedly vandalizing the device. Sometimes it gets knocked over, other times lit on fire, usually just spray painted over the lens with the word ‘tax’ across its fat belly.
The city responded by propping the speed camera atop a 2m tall steel pole mounted in concrete. This week, some determined individual used a power saw to cut it down.
News stations sent their Live-Eye roving reporters to stand next to the downed camera, as if it was a chalk outline of a murder victim. Concerned locals cried about cars in their neighborhood. But the City of Toronto doesn’t want to slow traffic down; that would negatively impact their revenue. This machine is a cash-cow.
Toronto could end speeding on Parkside tomorrow by installing traffic calming measures commonly used in Europe, but city hall doesn’t want that.
Above is an image of a street in Holland that could just as well be Parkside Dr; narrow sidewalks, building close to the road. Traffic calming ‘installations’ mean the road is no longer straight, which lowers its ‘design speed’. The chicanes force vehicles to slow down, while also providing parking for local businesses to thrive. It even looks safe enough to walk on or cycle down.
It’s so sad to see the city would rather bring in more money than protect its citizens. But as long as it continues to install cash-grab cameras, local heroes will keep chopping them down.
Seems quite rebellious. Albuquerque took out their red light cameras years ago. They cost them too much money. People wouldn’t pay the tickets.
It seems very un-Canadian to violently rebel against authority. That’s something we usually leave to the Americans!
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Joking aside, this destruction of speed cameras is quite common in Europe. In France there was an organized movement where dudes would dress in yellow vests and spray paint them. And in Italy, a couple of construction workers chopped down multiple speed cameras with an angle grinder. They became pop culture heros.
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https://demaras.com/2024/02/03/fleximan-vigilante-destroyer-of-speed-cameras/
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I think in Canada if you don’t pay the automates speed camera fine, you cannot renew your license.
Here, a lot of people drive on expired licenses and with expired plates. Ever since the Obama Justice Department put the Albuquerque police on a “ how to be kinder and gentler” program to help them learn not to be mean to violent criminals, they stopped enforcing traffic laws. State police, who are few and far between, are reluctant to stop people. A state cop was shot and killed by a driver who had been on a violent rampage across the country a few months ago.
Wow man, New Mexico sounds like the wild west compared to sleepy ol’ Toronto.
It’s still the wild west out here.
Heckin politicians. I learned a new word today: chicane. Makes sense a racing guy would use it casually in a sentence!
Once the gasoline gets into your blood, Susan, you find a way to relate racing to almost anything. Including public safety.
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There’s a YT channels I follow (and hate) called NotJustBikes where I learned about alternatives to things like speed cameras and such. The guy that runs the channel uses such incendiary like “…the streets are infested with cars…” so obviously he’s not MY people. But I did learn that if you build a straight, four-lane road without stop lights every mile, people WILL go fast. But there’s ways to fix that.
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Like the use of chicanes!
This begs the question, Chris. Is your blood leaded or unleaded.….
I like the gentle speed bumps they install to stop the chaos of speeding drivers!
I’ve been reading about these special speed bumps in Germany that only activate (rise up) if you’re speeding, and other ones in Spain made of non-Newtonian fluid that only stiffen into a solid if you’re speeding… but remain liquid if you’re below the limit.
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Just makes you think that a Canadian with premium unleaded coursing through his veins should promote this technology at City Hall!
Well, well, well, technology strikes again! It certainly does indicate that guy with the premium unleaded probably has a contribution to make!