Hamilton’s two automated speed enforcement (ASE) cameras are making their debut appearance on King and Main streets this coming week.
The cameras are a form of photo radar that has been rotated throughout the city since October 2020, and have frequently been a target for vandalism at their previous locations.
Acting manager of transportation operations Mike Field said they’ve been installed along Main Street East in the area of Gage Park and on King Street West from Locke Street to Dundurn Street.
Between January and June, the two cameras will spend equal time at four locations along the busy lower city thoroughfares.
The city’s goal is to reduce speeds and improve safety along King and Main streets, and the use of ASE cameras is one of a series of measures that also include changes to parking rules, adjustments to the timing of traffic signals, right turn restrictions and lane reconfigurations.
Field has previously compared the traffic calming measures to stacking pieces of Swiss cheese.
“One layer of cheese has lots of holes,” told Global News, “but when you start putting a piece of cheese on top of a piece of cheese, the holes fill up.”
The extra attention that is being paid to safety along Main and King streets is in response to a spike in pedestrian fatalities earlier this year.
Hamilton police investigated 23 traffic-related fatalities in 2022 with nine connected to pedestrians.