New photo radar aims to catch Burlington sidestreet speeders
Published March 3, 2023 at 4:35 pm
Photo radar cameras will be aimed at those who speed along Burlington’s sidestreets.
That’s the word from Mayor Marianne Meed Ward who tells inhalton.com that neighbourhood streets are where enforcement is needed.
“These are local streets where you really can’t have a police presence 24/7. It’s where we have tried other measures like stop signs or traffic calming measures like speed bumps,” said the mayor. “We’re hoping to review streets, we will do that this year and start to install speed cameras in 2024.”
The photo radar — or automated speed enforcement (ASE) — is considered by law enforcement agencies to be an effective tool to control speeding and to increase public awareness about safety and the need for drivers to slow down.
The program is already used in several other Ontario municipalities and has shown to be a deterrent against aggressive drivers, according to policing data.
As explained in Burlington’s budget book; “an ASE system uses a combination of cameras and speed-measuring equipment to record vehicle speed and takes a photograph of the vehicle’s license plates. The data is then retrieved from the ASE system and reviewed by Provincial Offenses Officers to confirm a speeding offense has occurred and if so, provide notice of the offense for processing through either the local Provincial Offences court system or a municipality’s Administrative Penalties system.”
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Initially, the plan for Burlington is to have ASE cameras placed in various locations throughout the city on a rotational basis every three months. For the rest of this year, the City will plan for the implementation by establishing where the cameras will be placed, installing warning signs, and coming up with the appropriate enforcement bylaws. As the mayor points out, the program is expected to be operational by 2024.
Burlington will have two cameras in the first year but are likely to add more in the future.
The City says it is launching the program in response to the number of citizen requests for speed enforcement in their neighbourhoods.
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