London city council is reiterating its strong support for municipal speed cameras, pushing back against comments Premier Doug Ford has made about the provincial program he has pledged to scrap.<\/p>\n
During a council meeting Tuesday, councillors voted unanimously to amend and endorse an Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) resolution<\/a> calling on the province to work with municipalities, and create a \u201cstrengthened and standardized provincial framework\u201d to support speed camera programs.<\/p>\n London has seven speed cameras, also known as automated speed enforcement, which are rotated through different school zones where speeding is an issue.<\/p>\n \u201cI think this is a responsible resolution to support. I think there’s discussions to be had. I think there’s ways to meet the province in the middle on some of these things,\u201d Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis told the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they want to dictate that all the revenue goes back into road safety programs, well, we’re already doing that. I think that’s a good best practice to adopt province-wide.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ford government passed legislation in 2019 allowing municipalities to deploy speed cameras, but late last month said legislation would be tabled to prohibit their use, calling them ineffectual and a \u201ccash grab.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite pushback from the opposition, municipalities<\/a>, school boards<\/a>, and police chiefs<\/a>, Ford has doubled down, saying he believes traffic-calming measures, including speed bumps and roundabouts, are more effective. The province will establish a new fund to help municipalities with such measures, he said.<\/p>\n Municipalities with existing school zone speed cameras will also be required to install large signs with flashing lights.<\/p>\n Ford\u2019s claims are contradicted by the findings of a recent study from SickKids and Toronto Metropolitan University<\/a>. London\u2019s own data shows areas with speed cameras see an average speed reduction of five to seven km\/h, according to city staff.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to continue making it a cash grab and not looking at alternatives, we have an alternative to put infrastructure in,\u201d Ford said last week. \u201cBut folks, they don’t want to do that. They want to continue to collect hundreds of millions of dollars and continue speeding.\u201d<\/p>\n Staff say London\u2019s program is revenue-neutral, with money generated put back into the program. Last year, nearly $487,000 was collected in fines, with $381,688 put back into the program. Any surplus is put toward road safety initiatives, like pedestrian crossings.<\/p>\n \u201cSpeeders \u2014 not taxpayers \u2014 pay the cost,\u201d the resolution passed by council on Tuesday reads in part, a message echoed by Lewis during the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cA ticket for speeding is not a cash grab. It’s not a tax grab. If you don’t want to pay it, don’t speed in a school zone. It\u2019s just that simple,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n Several city councillors said speeding was one of, if not the top issue they hear about from constituents, particularly when it comes to areas around schools and parks.<\/p>\n \u201cSafety in our neighborhoods is one of … the most emails I get as a city councillor, even for the past 11 years,\u201d said Ward 9 Coun. Anna Hopkins. CBC London has previously reported<\/a> on constituents\u2019 push for safety upgrades to a stretch of Longwoods Road where a young boy was struck and killed in December<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe community I represent is very vigilant and is very concerned about safety in their neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n The passed resolution notes that most Ontario drivers support speed cameras, and that they free up police resources.<\/p>\n Should speed cameras go away, Ward 12 Coun. Elizabeth Peloza said the city would have to find new money to pay for the road safety improvements, currently paid for with speed camera surplus.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they still want enforcement, there’s going to be increased enforcement costs for police across the board, as every … ward councillor will want some help in their wards,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Mayor Josh Morgan admitted he wasn\u2019t sure whether the province would be willing to engage in further discussions, or whether they would be willing to make changes to the program.<\/p>\n Regardless, he says it\u2019s the responsibility of motorists to follow the speed limit.<\/p>\n \u201cAll you have to do is just walk in front of one of the schools during drop off and pick up and see the amount of kids and parents \u2026 and realize the responsible thing to do is to just slow down in school zones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope the program is retained for those who don’t listen to that, but I think we can all take it upon ourselves to just drive responsibly, particularly in areas where children are involved.\u201d<\/p>\n A copy of Tuesday\u2019s resolution will be sent to Ford and to the ministers responsible for transportation, and municipal affairs and housing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London city council is reiterating its strong support for municipal speed cameras, pushing back against comments Premier Doug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[164238,748,164235,393,4884,257,40177,26112,164239,164237,164236,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-500381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-association-of-municipalities-of-ontario","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-doug-ford","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-london-city-council","15":"tag-road-safety","16":"tag-school-zones","17":"tag-shawn-lewis","18":"tag-speed-cameras","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115375917143095967","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}