It’s been nearly four months since the Ford government banned speed enforcement cameras, leaving cities searching for other ways to slow drivers down.
In Brampton, city officials say they received around $7 million from the province to help with the installation of new traffic calming measures – a far cry from the estimated $30 million a year in revenues it expected from speed cameras.
While a staff report is expected to support the installation of more speed bumps, roundabouts and increased signage, some councillors are looking at making some higher-tech moves.
“Those existing traffic calming measures, whether they be speed bumps or bigger signage or extra signage, they haven’t been proven to be as effective as they’ve been in the past,” said Coun. Rowena Santos.
On Wednesday, the city agreed to launch a pilot project for what they hope is the future of slowing things down – smart LED crosswalks, from a made-in-Canada company.
“It’s like an integrated system approach to dealing with notifying cars that they are entering a community safety zone or school zone, measuring their speed before they enter the safety zone, using LED lighting on the ground,” explained Santos. “So you could see it when there’s snow, when it’s cloudy, when it’s dark or even during the day.”
Where speed cameras were previously placed, they actually worked as a deterrent, reducing speeds by an average of 9 km/h. However, five hot spots saw an even more dramatic decrease, with speeds dropping by an average of more than 25 km/h.
“Once we stopped issuing tickets, we saw speeding almost double in terms of non-compliance as soon as those cameras were turned off,” added Santos.
It’s been nearly four months since the Ford government banned speed enforcement cameras, leaving cities searching for other ways to slow drivers down. In Brampton, city officials say they received around $7 million from the province to help with the installation of new traffic calming measures – a far cry from the estimated $30 million a Local
It’s been nearly four months since the Ford government banned speed enforcement cameras, leaving cities searching for other ways to slow drivers down.
In Brampton, city officials say they received around $7 million from the province to help with the installation of new traffic calming measures – a far cry from the estimated $30 million a year in revenues it expected from speed cameras.
While a staff report is expected to support the installation of more speed bumps, roundabouts and increased signage, some councillors are looking at making some higher-tech moves.
“Those existing traffic calming measures, whether they be speed bumps or bigger signage or extra signage, they haven’t been proven to be as effective as they’ve been in the past,” said Coun. Rowena Santos.
On Wednesday, the city agreed to launch a pilot project for what they hope is the future of slowing things down – smart LED crosswalks, from a made-in-Canada company.
“It’s like an integrated system approach to dealing with notifying cars that they are entering a community safety zone or school zone, measuring their speed before they enter the safety zone, using LED lighting on the ground,” explained Santos. “So you could see it when there’s snow, when it’s cloudy, when it’s dark or even during the day.”
Where speed cameras were previously placed, they actually worked as a deterrent, reducing speeds by an average of 9 km/h. However, five hot spots saw an even more dramatic decrease, with speeds dropping by an average of more than 25 km/h.
“Once we stopped issuing tickets, we saw speeding almost double in terms of non-compliance as soon as those cameras were turned off,” added Santos.