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The plan to crack down on speeding has been slowed.
Photo radar cameras – officially known as automated speed enforcement (ASE) – were scheduled to arrive on Oakville streets this summer.
But with the town still awaiting provincial rules that will make ticketing feasible, cameras won’t roll out until early 2023.
Last year, town councillors voted to purchase and operate 14 mobile cameras to ticket speeders in areas designated as community safety zones (CSZ). The 32 zones (see list below) are near schools or other safety-sensitive spots where speeding brings higher community risks.
The program has stalled as town staff await provincial regulations that will allow ticketing of drivers outside of the provincial court system.
Under current rules, the town could charge drivers through the typical provincial traffic ticket system, as is being done in Toronto and Mississauga.
But those tickets can be disputed in court if a driver wants to contest the charge.
Concerns about clogging up Halton’s court system with photo radar tickets convinced the town to wait until the province introduced an Administrative Monetary Penalty (AMP) framework for speed cameras.
The town already uses an administrative penalty system for parking and bylaw violations. While tickets can be appealed through a town-managed process, there is no right to a judicial process.
How does it work?
A mobile system with a camera and speed measurement device detects and photographs speeders. Tickets are issued to a vehicle’s owner, regardless of who is driving at the time of the offence.
The penalty is a fine. Demerit points are not deducted, and driving records are not affected.
The cost to speeders?
- $5 per km/h for drivers going 1-19 km/h over the speed limit
- $7.50 per km/h for drivers going 20-29 km/h over the speed limit
- $12 per km/h for drivers going 30-49 km/h over the speed limit
Exceeding the speed limit by 50 km/h or more will earn you a special invitation into the court system.
Where will the cameras be?
Each of Oakville’s seven wards will have two cameras rotating through the identified community safety zones.
Beginning in September, “coming soon” signs will be moving through the CSZs to advertise the plans for automated speed enforcement.
Town of Oakville
The cost to taxpayers?
The program is expected to cost the town about $485,000 annually.
Municipalities must purchase cameras from Redflex; the province's only approved equipment vendor. The company will also charge the town $95 per camera per day to operate the devices, plus an additional fee to manage requests for camera relocation.
Oakville must also participate in a joint processing centre managed by the City of Toronto, which will process all camera images generated across the province.
The provincial Ministry of Transportation will charge the town to access license plate information, while the town will also pay a fee to Halton court services to manage the ticket system.
Oakville will be limited to issuing 5,000 tickets per year, so cameras might only operate two to three hours per day, the town’s manager of transportation services, Martin Maguire, told councillors last year.
“But the good news is that motorists don’t know if the camera is operational or not, and studies done outside of the operational hours show that just the presence of the camera has had a positive impact on operating speeds,” he said.
A cap of 5,000 tickets will limit revenue to about $360,000 a year.
