On one hand im very anti car, but on the other hand im very anti surveillance.
Shit.
The cameras aren’t a video feed. They take a snapshot if it detects you are speeding. Don’t speed and your photo will never be taken. The municipality also public releases the location of the cameras and put signage up. You could alter your route accordingly if you wanted to avoid the cameras.
Maybe instead of roads designed for 80, set to 60, and reduced to 40, and then speed-camera’d, they could (get this) build roads that encourage drivers to follow the limit.
On the one hand, you are right and that is the ultimate solution. On the other hand it will cost millions to redesign one road whereas the cameras cost thousands to operate. The cameras can be used as a band aid solution but when the road is due for repaving or rehabilitation, it should be redesigned.
There could be some middle ground by adding those flappy sticks to narrow the lane and make turns sharper, requiring slower speeds, at intersections until the road can be properly rehabilitated.
Unfortunately it’s just too expensive to properly fix and redesign every road in the city. Even the posterchild of safe streets, The Netherlands, didn’t get safe streets overnight, they did the above strategy of making streets safer when they were due to be rehabilitated.
Definitely need some speed bumps on that stretch of road, all along Parkside. I really don’t understand why some have already not been installed.
Speed bumps are definitely a no-go on Parkside. The emergency services (at least Toronto Fire) takes issue with speed bumps slowing down response times, and the TTC is also a big opponent to speed bumps being put up on their bus routes which the 80 Queensway operates down it.
There was a plan in the works to narrow the street to 2-3 lanes which would force traffic to slow down, especially if the lanes are narrower too, with bike lanes also coming in. It’s too bad the changes are dead since the Supreme Mayor of Toronto made legislative changes that effectively killed the major changes to the street