Thousands of tickets are issued each month through the City of Toronto’s speed camera program, but what happens when a ticket is issued to a City-owned vehicle?
There are currently 75 Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras placed throughout the city — three in each ward.
The City says they are located on local, collector and arterial roads in community safety zones and rotate every three to six months.
Fines range in price depending on how fast a vehicle was travelling above the speed limit, and are issued to the registered owner of a vehicle. No demerit points are issued. If a vehicle is travelling more than 50 km/h above the limit, a summons is issued to the registered owner to appear in court.
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and the City of Toronto own numerous vehicles that are constantly travelling on city streets.
The TTC said in a statement to Global News that drivers of all its vehicles, including non-revenue vehicles such as repair trucks or special constables, “receive extensive training on the importance of following the Highway Traffic Act.”
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“Unfortunately, there are occasions where our vehicles are captured on camera exceeding the speed limit,” the transit agency said.
Around 15 violations are issued per month for all TTC vehicles, which includes the roughly 1,600 buses and 200 non-revenue vehicles that are travelling “at any given moment,” the TTC said.
The City of Toronto said in a statement sent to Global News earlier this week that its staff also takes part in driver training programs that include education on following speed limits, impacts of crashes at different speeds, and the City’s commitment to its Vision Zero road safety program.
In 2022, the number of speed camera tickets issued to the City, not including TTC vehicles, was 182, the City said.
So far in 2023, that figure stands at 99.
That number doesn’t include emergency vehicles that may need to go above the speed limit at times.
Who pays the fine?
Both the TTC and the City of Toronto told Global News that if one of their vehicles is issued a ticket, the person driving at the time will ultimately have to pay the fine.
The TTC said if one of their vehicles is caught speeding, the operator is responsible for paying and a note is made on their driving record.
The City of Toronto said its fleet services division pays the tickets to avoid late fees. The fee is then recovered from the respective City division, and the division then recovers it from the driver.
“If drivers receive a ticket, there are ticket-handling guidelines that include written warnings, a driver interview, education, remedial training, testing, review by the internal driver safety board (Permit Review Committee) and suspension of a City driving permit,” the City said.
Introduced in 2016, Toronto’s Vision Zero Road Safety plan is focused on reducing traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries on city streets. The strategy was launched after 78 people died in traffic incidents the previous year.
Part of the plan was the introduction of speed enforcement cameras in July 2020 with the city installing 50 devices initially and then adding another 25 earlier this year. During a launch event of the additional cameras in February, former mayor John Tory said the city’s goal is to have 150 cameras in the future.
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