With these works shelved, it will
likely be left to the next council to
reaffirm when, or if, they get done.A
fter a three-year pause, the
issue of red light cameras is
steering its way back to City Hall.
The use of automated enforcement
cameras to catch red light runners was
shelved by Kingston city council in 2016
while a traffic and pedestrian safety
study was launched. Now, one of the
recommendations to emerge from that
study, known as Vision Zero, is for city
council to launch red light cameras.
“We know red light cameras were
considered in the past, and there will
be another opportunity for council to
reconsider it later this year,” says
Deanna Green, manager of the city’s
traffic division.
The red light camera program has
been operating in other Ontario
municipalities for the past 20 years
with solid results, according to Deanna.
“What we are seeing across the
province is at an intersection where
there are red light cameras, they’ve
seen incidents of red light running
decrease by half,” she explains.
The automated camera records the
licence plate of a vehicle that crosses
into a pre-selected intersection when
the traffic light has changed to red. It
is triggered by pavement sensors that
record the moment a vehicle enters an
intersection after the traffic light has
already turned red. The camera takes
three pictures: one is of your licence
plate, one is of your vehicle prior to the
(pavement) stop bar, and a third is a
picture of the vehicle in the intersection.
The owner of the vehicle is later
mailed a $325 ticket, but with no
impact on demerit points. The program
is administered by the City of Toronto.
Drivers entering an intersection on
an amber light or those who enter the
intersection on a green or amber light
to make a left-hand turn will not be
ticketed.
A business case study done for the
city in 2015 also says it could lead to a
15 percent rise in rear-end collisions as
more drivers brake at amber lights to
avoid a potential ticket.
Initially, Deanna says, the Vision
Zero strategy is recommending red
light cameras be installed at ten
accident-prone intersections across
Kingston. She says there is a five-year
cycle to register with the program,18 JULY 17, 2019