Toronto’s speed camera program is under renewed scrutiny as vandalism and political backlash mount, but road safety experts say the evidence is clear: automated speed enforcement works.
I have a ticket I’m awaiting a trial for. 79kph in a 60kph zone that is built exactly like the 80kph zone just before it. It’s basically a 4-lane highway, complete with a ~20ft grass median and it only has one speed limit sign over the course of about 3-5km.
The city switched the speed limit signs eight years ago, according to Streetview. In that time they have done not a single damn thing to actually indicate that the road needs slower traffic. Sure, they could tighten the road with low hedges in the green median and get rid of the huge “on ramp” merge lanes on all the intersecting streets, but what fun would that be? The city refuses to take safety seriously but expects me to? Really?
I had another ticket for ~45kph in what turned out to be a 30kph zone. The road in question is four-five cars wide and the picture is comical as it showed just my little car in a sea of asphalt.
I don’t mind slowing down, really I don’t, but it feels less like they care about safety and more about pretending to care with bullshit speed limit signs on roads built for MUCH faster traffic. I don’t hate the concept of speed cameras, but I detest the idea that they are somehow standalone solutions and that there are seriously people who preach safety while doing nothing meaningful. They’ll trash public transit, fight bike lanes, lose their shit over a pedestrian street, and cry like babies when they can’t easily park their SUVs downtown and then freak the hell out over cars goong the speed the road was designed to accommodate. Fucking insane.
That is the issue with the way speed limits are implemented. They design and build a road for high speeds, then set the speed limit 10-15% lower than than the designed speed, thus penalizing drivers who use the road as designed.
There is nearby school that has a 20 mph limit during school hours. Slow traffic is a good thing especially around schools. But then they also have wide radius curves at the corners of intersecting streets and entrances into the school’s parking areas. These curves are wide enough to allow cars to take these turns at 30 mph despite crossing a sidewalk or crosswalk. That is infrastructure that kills children by design, and it’s standard.
Speed cameras are revenue generators. They exist to make money from fees. And because the speed camera can only give fees after the fact, there is no immediate consequence to speeding. A speed camera can only catch someone already speeding, they do not prevent someone who is already speeding from continuing. The only solution is better infrastructure.
Exactly! The stats apparently say that they do help, and to be honest I don’t doubt that, but they’re a last resort, after all the real work has been done, that are being used as the first line of defence so that cities and drivers don’t have to acceot that maybe driving everywhere fucking sucks.
I have a ticket I’m awaiting a trial for. 79kph in a 60kph zone that is built exactly like the 80kph zone just before it. It’s basically a 4-lane highway, complete with a ~20ft grass median and it only has one speed limit sign over the course of about 3-5km.
The city switched the speed limit signs eight years ago, according to Streetview. In that time they have done not a single damn thing to actually indicate that the road needs slower traffic. Sure, they could tighten the road with low hedges in the green median and get rid of the huge “on ramp” merge lanes on all the intersecting streets, but what fun would that be? The city refuses to take safety seriously but expects me to? Really?
I had another ticket for ~45kph in what turned out to be a 30kph zone. The road in question is four-five cars wide and the picture is comical as it showed just my little car in a sea of asphalt.
I don’t mind slowing down, really I don’t, but it feels less like they care about safety and more about pretending to care with bullshit speed limit signs on roads built for MUCH faster traffic. I don’t hate the concept of speed cameras, but I detest the idea that they are somehow standalone solutions and that there are seriously people who preach safety while doing nothing meaningful. They’ll trash public transit, fight bike lanes, lose their shit over a pedestrian street, and cry like babies when they can’t easily park their SUVs downtown and then freak the hell out over cars goong the speed the road was designed to accommodate. Fucking insane.
That is the issue with the way speed limits are implemented. They design and build a road for high speeds, then set the speed limit 10-15% lower than than the designed speed, thus penalizing drivers who use the road as designed.
There is nearby school that has a 20 mph limit during school hours. Slow traffic is a good thing especially around schools. But then they also have wide radius curves at the corners of intersecting streets and entrances into the school’s parking areas. These curves are wide enough to allow cars to take these turns at 30 mph despite crossing a sidewalk or crosswalk. That is infrastructure that kills children by design, and it’s standard.
Speed cameras are revenue generators. They exist to make money from fees. And because the speed camera can only give fees after the fact, there is no immediate consequence to speeding. A speed camera can only catch someone already speeding, they do not prevent someone who is already speeding from continuing. The only solution is better infrastructure.
Exactly! The stats apparently say that they do help, and to be honest I don’t doubt that, but they’re a last resort, after all the real work has been done, that are being used as the first line of defence so that cities and drivers don’t have to acceot that maybe driving everywhere fucking sucks.
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