Toronto speed camera that's issued over 65,000 tickets cut down for 4th time
City must redesign Parkside Drive to make it safer — not just replace camera, advocate says
Vandals have cut down a speed camera on Parkside Drive in Toronto for the fourth time in five months — and a local advocate says it's time for the city to finally fix the street, rather than the camera again.
Toronto police said they responded to the act of vandalism on Saturday morning. There is no suspect information at this time, spokesperson Laura Brabant told CBC News.
The speed camera, located in the city's west end, was cut down twice in November, the second time only a day after it had been reinstalled. In December, vandals cut down the camera again and dumped it into a nearby duck pond.
Since it was installed in April 2022, the camera has issued over 65,000 tickets and more than $7 million in fines, according to Safe Parkside, a community advocacy group.
This latest act of vandalism comes after the city announced it will double the number of automated speed cameras last month. The city will add 25 new permanent cameras and another 50 mobile cameras that will rotate through locations within the wards where they're installed.
But Faraz Gholizadeh, co-chair of Safe Parkside, says speed cameras are not enough to make Parkside Drive safer.
Residents have long criticized the street as dangerous, citing heavy traffic and speeding drivers. Safe Parkside was formed in 2020, but residents have been calling on the city to make the street safer for over a decade, Gholizadeh said.
"Our disappointment and our frustration lies with the City of Toronto, not with the vandal, because they've known how dangerous the street is for many, many years," he said.
The street is dominated by motor vehicles, with barely any room for pedestrians and only one sidewalk that does not meet the city's minimum width requirement, he said.
After a couple was killed in a crash in October 2021, the city launched an ongoing study of the street, reduced the street's speed limit from 50 to 40 km/h and added speed cameras.
In November 2024, city council voted to approve a road safety redesign project, which would include a bikeway, designated turning lanes at intersections and "intersection safety improvements."
According to a city staff report, Transportation Services will continue studying Parkside Drive as it develops a "detailed design of road safety improvements." Construction would begin in 2026 at the earliest, the report says.
Three and a half years since the initial study was launched, Gholizadeh says the city has not taken any meaningful steps to redesign the street. Speed cameras are not making an impact, he said.
"It's beyond frustrating now," he said. "There's no real timeline as to when these changes are going to come."
"We're just crossing our fingers and hoping that no one else is seriously injured, that no one else is killed, until [the city] can finally get its act together."
City spokesperson Elise von Scheel said the city condemns any theft or vandalism of speed cameras.
"Tampering with, damaging or stealing one of these devices allows dangerous speeding to continue and undermines the safety of all road users," she said in an email to CBC Toronto on Saturday.
After the Parkside Drive camera was vandalized in December, a spokesperson for the city said at the time that it was looking into ways to prevent camera vandalism, such as installing remote monitoring.
Von Scheel said speed cameras in the city are provided by a vendor which is responsible for fixing or replacing devices within a maximum of 30 days.
In a statement Tuesday, city spokesperson Laura McQuillan said the Parkside Drive camera is mounted on a pole and remotely monitored so that the vendor is notified in real time if it goes offline unexpectedly.
"The city is working with the contractor on other measures to help reduce incidents of vandalism," she said.
CBC Toronto has reached out to Verra Mobility, which owns the vendor for Toronto's speed cameras, for comment.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
