After being delayed for more than a year, automated speed enforcement is coming to Halton Hills.
The Town of Halton Hills will install its first automated speed enforcement camera in late November or early December. Signs have already been erected on Mountainview Road South to warn motorists in order to meet the requirement of providing 90 days notice before implementation.
Municipalities can only use automated speed enforcement in community safety zones. There are 23 community safety zones in Halton Hills and the camera will rotate between them, except for those that are only community safety zones during specific hours.
Halton Hills has been increasing its number of community safety zones in preparation for the implementation of automated speed enforcement.
“We collect a lot of traffic information, so we had a good sense of where we would use automated speed enforcement cameras,” said Matthew Roj, traffic coordinator for the Town of Halton Hills. “We would be looking at collisions, vehicle speeds, traffic volumes and looking out for vulnerable road users, so you’re talking about hospitals, schools, parks, arenas and senior centres, as well as feedback from the police.”
The Town had just four community safety zones in 2022, before adding eight more that year. In studying traffic patterns for that first round of new community safety zones, the Town found that the average speed in each of those areas was at least 10 km/h above the posted speed limit.
The implementation was delayed by the camera manufacturer needing to update its software, allowing disputed tickets to be contested at the municipal level rather than in provincial court.
The Town also had to work out agreements with the Ministry of the Attorney General, the camera vendor, the ticket processing centre and the Ministry of Transportation. The agreements are at various stages of completion, but none of them are expected to cause further delays.
The Town will be able to issue up to 5,000 tickets in the first year - a limit based on the number that can be handled by the Joint Processing Centre in Toronto. That figure is expected to increase by 5,000 each year, with a capacity of 20,000 by 2027.
Roj said though there will be some leeway and tickets will not be issued for going one km/hr over the posted limit, but the purpose of the program is to curb speeds.
“It will not be that stringent, but people have to understand that the maximum speed limit is the maximum speed limit, and if they are going above that they are breaking the law.”
The Town is in the process of setting up a page on its website that will provide additional information about automated speed enforcement.
“Council is focused very much on safety and transparency,” Roj said. “As we are rolling out the program and starting to collect the information, we want people to understand where the locations are, what the results are before, during and after, so they see the benefit of the program. It’s all about safety, there’s no other reason.”
