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Councillors OK red light cameras for Sudbury

Staff begins preparations, but final decision will come during 2019 budget processĀ 
20180116 red light traffic camera AdobeStock_57630919
Members of the city's finance committee gave staff approval Tuesday to begin planning for red light cameras that, if everything goes to plan, would be installed in 2019. (File)

Members of the city's finance committee gave staff approval Tuesday to begin planning for red light cameras that, if everything goes to plan, would be installed in 2019.

First proposed in January, a report last month was deferred back to staff to answer some questions councillors had about the implementation of the cameras.

Those questions included the fear mourners in a funeral procession could be ticketed when the train of cars pass through a red light. 

Joe Rocca, traffic and asset management supervisor, said he contacted local funeral homes and learned mourners are told to obey traffic signals. 

In cases when they don't, Rocca said other cities cancel red light tickets as long as the driver can show they were part of a funeral procession.

They would have to go to court -- except for out-of-town mourners – and the Sudbury funeral homes said they would be willing to help verify whether tickets were issued during a funeral procession.

Approved in principle in January, the current proposal would see the cameras installed at three intersections — Paris Street at Cedar Street, Regent Street at Algonquin Road and Municipal Road 80 at Dominion Drive – and at another three still to be determined.

The cameras only take pictures of the rear license plate of a vehicle – photos from the front would raise privacy concerns — and no demerit points are issued. The fines are $325, of which $265 goes to the city, and $60 to the province for the victim surcharge fine.

Costs for operating the cameras is about $500,000 a year, and estimating for one ticket a day, would result in revenue of $580,000, at least initially. As drivers get used to the cameras, fewer tickets would be issued. 

Toronto, London, Ottawa, Hamilton and the Regions of Peel, Halton, Waterloo and York already have them. Toronto processes all the photos and sends the information to each city, which actually issues the ticket. 

Another concern was the possibility that ambulance, fire, paramedic and police vehicles could be ticketed en route to an emergency.

Rocca said that EMS vehicles are required to stop at all red lights to reduce the risk of collision. In other cities, when they do pass through red lights, the percentage of tickets they received is small. In Hamilton, for example, EMS vehicles received 41 tickets in 2015, or 0.3 per cent of the total, he said.

That would translate to roughly seven tickets in Sudbury a year.

Councillors also wanted statistics showing what sort of impact the cameras had on angle collisions, considered to be among the most dangerous type of crashes. 

Toronto, Rocca said, saw a drop of 60 per cent, Ottawa 50 per cent and York Region by 70 per cent. 

“Greater Sudbury had 40 angle type collisions between 2012 and 2016 at the three signalized intersections which have been recommended to have a red light camera system installed,” Rocca said in the report. “Of these 40 collisions, 10 resulted in injury and the remaining 30 resulted in property only damage.

“Using an average 60  per cent reduction in the right angle collisions based on the experiences of other municipalities after installing red light cameras, it would be expected that the City would have experienced 6 fewer injury collisions and 12 fewer property only damage collisions during the same five-year period at these three intersections.” 

Ward 5 Coun. Bob Kirwan wondered if it was prudent to spend $500,000 a year on the cameras. Once residents get used to the cameras, revenue is expected to drop, making the cameras a cost to the city.

“Is the cost, at the end of a couple of year, going to outweigh the revenue?”

But Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh said the cameras have the effect of reducing speeds, one of the most common complaints councillors hear about from residents. One of the reason people run red lights, she said, is because they are speeding and don't have time to slow down. If knowing there are cameras at an intersection forces people to slow down, everyone will benefit, McIntosh said.

“This is a safety grab, it's not a cash grab,” she said.

Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer agreed, saying if revenue drops because fewer people are running red lights, that's a win for the city.

“We shouldn't look at dollar figures as the gauge of success,” Sizer said. “I'm not looking for this to make money for the City of Greater Sudbury.”

Ward 12 Coun. Jocelyne Laundry-Altmann tried repeatedly to delay a decision on the cameras. While she was in support, she said they should wait for another program that uses mobile cameras to catch speeders. Unlike the red light cameras, which are fixed and whose locations are know, the mobile cameras move around and could have  a bigger impact.

“I'm going to be stubborn about this,” Landry-Altmann said. 

“We want something that is going to work in the future.”

Mayor Brian Bigger agreed, saying he had seen the mobile cameras in operation when he lived in Alberta.

In the end, councillors opted to go with the red light cameras, giving staff authority to begin planning and prepare a business case for the 2019 budget.

A final decision will be made after the October municipal election. 
 


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Darren MacDonald

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