Toronto speed cameras net $34M fines from lead-footed drivers, city says

Toronto has collected $34 million in fines since its automated speed cameras began snapping pictures of lead-footed drivers and advocates say they want that money rolled directly into the city's road safety programs.

City staff provided the figures to CBC Toronto, revealing for the first time how much money the cameras have raised since the start of the program. The cameras have issued 560,000 tickets between July 2020 and the end of October 2022.

Advocates say as much of the $34 million in fines as possible should be used to bolster the city's Vision Zero Road Safety Plan. 

"The fact that that much speeding occurs in our city is because our streets are designed like highways, and that's easy to fix by retrofitting them," said Jessica Spieker, a spokesperson for a group called Friends and Families for Safe Streets.

"It's not that expensive." 

Toronto's Vision Zero plan began in 2017. Two years later, the city doubled-down on the strategy, asking staff to study a number of measures, including the installation of speed cameras, changing road design and lowering speed limits on arterial roads. 

Earlier this year, the city said its total combined operating and capital spending on the Vision Zero between 2017 and 2021 was estimated to be $205.6 million. The budget for 2022 included $64 million to expand both enforcement and school crossing guard programs.

The automated speed cameras became part of the city's plan with 50 of the devices in rotating locations around the city. Toronto announced last month that it will add an additional 25 cameras to that complement.

The average fine issued by the cameras is $107 with no demerit points.

City staff could not immediately say how much the city has spent to operate and maintain the cameras since 2020.

"The revenue collected (set fines plus costs and fees) offsets the program cost," city spokesperson Alex Burke said in a statement.

Until recently, the city said it could not release the information about the fine revenue because it was the property of the province. City staff said the Ontario Court of Justice authorized it to share the information on charges and fines after CBC Toronto requested the data. 

Cycle Toronto's Alison Stewart said the city needs to figure out a way to be more transparent about the release of the fine data and say how its being spent. She too would like to see that funding used to address road safety.

"Any revenue above and beyond the cost of the program should really be used to implement immediate road safety improvements," she said. "And we're not seeing that."