With last year’s deployment of red light cameras considered a success, speed enforcement cameras are slated to begin issuing tickets by September.
The city’s elected officials approved the deployment of between two and six automated speed enforcement cameras during 2023 budget deliberations last week. Although last year saw the city introduce six red light cameras, the city doesn’t currently ticket speeders via camera.
City traffic and asset management supervisor Joe Rocca told Sudbury.com this week that he expects to see the automated speed enforcement cameras operational by September.
“The actual deployment and installation of this equipment is a lot simpler than red light cameras,” he said, noting that while the red light cameras required installing infrastructure, the mobile speed enforcement cameras comprise of heavy boxes that can be dropped anywhere.
“They're literally going to just drop them down on the ground somewhere and calibrate them.”
Speeding vehicles will have their licence plates photographed, and the images will be reviewed by provincial offences officers working out of a joint processing centre the City of Toronto has set up, which also processes tickets issued through Greater Sudbury’s red light cameras.
Also like the red light cameras, tickets will be issued to the owner regardless of who was driving.
“Upon conviction, the only penalty is a fine – no demerit points will be issued nor will the registered owners’ driving record be impacted,” according to a municipal business case for the cameras.
The cameras will be relocated to different areas of the city every few months, and between two and six of the devices will be purchased. Rocca plans on presenting options to city council in the coming months to land on the final number of cameras.
It’s anticipated that each offence will generate $55 in fine revenue, and that the program will result in a net revenue of $43,667 this year and $368,333 in 2024.
Meanwhile, the city’s six red light cameras went live on Sept. 21, at which time they began resulting in the owners of vehicles which ran red lights being mailed $325 tickets.
By the end of 2022, they resulted in the issuing of 1,601 tickets.
“This is far beyond what we were expecting when we first launched the program,” Rocca said, adding that they’d anticipated approximately six tickets per day, which would total approximately 600 by the end of 2022 and allow the city to hit a break-even point, financially.
The city is beginning to see the number of tickets issued trend downward as fewer people run red lights, which Rocca said has been the city’s goal from the start.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
