What’s the threshold for getting a ticket from Barrie’s new automated speed enforcement (ASE) cameras?
John Goodman, 68, wants to know where the line is, or how many kilometres an hour is too fast.
“If it’s a 40 (km/h) and they’re issuing them at 41, I think it’s ridiculous,” said the former Toronto police officer. “Or are they like the police departments and wait until they’re 15 over and then issue the tickets.”
Goodman said he’s had no luck getting an answer to his speed threshold question from city officials.
ASE is a system that uses a camera and a speed measuring device to detect and capture images of the licence plates of vehicles travelling faster than the posted speed limit in school or community safety zones. These types of charges are the responsibility of the vehicle owner and not the driver.
Barrie’s cameras are being rotated through different community safety zones every few months.
Threshold speeds and camera operational hours will not be disclosed, according to city officials, when the ASE cameras were unveiled in late November.
“Nobody in the city will talk to you,” said Goodman, a police officer for 34 years who worked in traffic for almost 20 years. “I couldn’t find you a police officer that agreed with photo radar. None of them agree with it.
“I agree speeding is a bit of a problem, but speeding alone doesn’t cause accidents. Speed increases severity of the accident.”
Shawn Gibson, Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall's executive assistant, said Goodman met on this matter Nov. 13 with Nuttall, Coun. Nigussie Nigussie and himself for close to 60 minutes.
Goodman, a Barrie resident for more than 30 years, said he has not received an ASE speeding ticket, nor does he know anyone who has been ticketed.
The speeding penalty is a fine, and tickets issued through ASE don’t result in demerit points. The fine is based on how much the driver is exceeding the speed limit. Fines are doubled in community safety zones — even if the violation occurs outside of school hours.
The city says the speeding tickets will arrive within 30 days after the violation occurs.
Barrie has 27 community safety zones. They are established by municipal councils through a bylaw, and cover road areas where there is a higher risk to, or concern for, drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and/or others who share the space.
Highway Traffic Act fines, including speeding, are doubled in community safety zones and many community safety zones are located close to schools. Barrie has 81 sections of road designated as community safety zones in accordance with the community safety zones bylaw.
“They’re issuing tickets in community safety zones outside of school hours, on a Saturday or a Sunday, which under the old rules didn’t happen,” Goodman said. “It’s 40 km. at all times.”
But the city says there are different signs in community safety zones with speed cameras. Along with a Municipal Speed Camera in Use sign, there is also one indicating how the speed limit can differ — depending on the time of year, the day and time of day, related to times when children are travelling to and from schools.
The flashing lights to warn of a 40 km/h zone have been replaced because the Ontario government doesn't permit both flashing lights and speed limits that vary to be posted at the same time.
Ward 6 Coun. Nigussie Nigussie says he is in full support of the ASE program, noting one of council’s priorities is community safety, to address speeding and aggressive driving to ensure street and pedestrian safety.
“This is an issue I hear about regularly from residents in my ward,” he said. “The automated speed cameras are one tool we have to help make our streets safer, particularly around school zones.
“Vehicles are travelling much too fast in our school zones, and this is a way to help to improve the situation.”
Barrie’s ASE camera equipment cost $100,000 and yearly operational costs are $370,000, staff have said. The fines will cover a portion of the ASE program’s costs.
Local Authority Services (LAS), the business services arm of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), and the city signed an agreement last summer that LAS will initially fund two provincial offences officers who will process speed-camera violations in Barrie.
Their first two ASE locations are eastbound on Big Bay Point Road near Willow Landing and St. Michael the Archangel Catholic elementary schools and southbound on Anne Street North, near Portage View and Nouvelle-Alliance schools.
In February, the cameras will be moved to northbound Essa Road near Timothy Christian School and westbound Ardagh Road in the vicinity of Heritage Baptist Church.
