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More than three times as many vehicles went 60 km/h or faster on Parkside Dr. than last year, when a much maligned speed camera was watching the street
Published May 14, 2026 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 3 minute read
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City of Toronto data shows speeding on Parkside Dr., near High Park, has tripled since a much maligned speed camera was taken out of service. Photo by Jack Boland/Toronto Sun filesArticle content
Faraz Gholizadeh says Parkside Dr. is more dangerous without a speed camera – and he’s got numbers to prove his point.
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Gholizadeh, the co-chairman of the advocacy group Safe Parkside, says in the first four months of the year, more than three times as many vehicles went 60 km/h or faster on the street than the same time period in 2025.
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His data comes right from the City of Toronto’s Open Data Portal, which tracks figures from a digital sign on Parkside Dr. that displays the speeds of passing vehicles.
“It’s back to the Wild West on Parkside, unfortunately,” Gholizadeh told the Toronto Sun.
Safe Parkside released the figures this week to mark six months since the province stepped in to end the use of speed cameras in Ontario. Parkside Dr. was perhaps Toronto’s biggest flashpoint in that fight, as the speed camera keeping watch on that street was repeatedly felled by vandals.
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‘No speed limit’ and ‘no consequences’ without cameras
“When the vandalism was happening on a regular basis, speeds were already starting to creep up, but once the camera was gone altogether, that’s when things really picked up – and now we’re back to the Parkside of old, which is: There’s no speed limit,” Gholizadeh said.
“You can decide what speed you want to go and now there’s no consequences either for that, because speed cameras are gone.”
The numbers show speeding is becoming more common each month since the speed camera was shut down, “and as more people become comfortable with speeding on Parkside again, I imagine those numbers will just continue to creep up,” Gholizadeh added.
He said that’s led to more dangerous crashes.
Safe Parkside has published a handful of photos of multi-vehicle collisions it says took place since the speed camera was removed.
Where are the cops?
Despite this, Gholizadeh said they’ve “very sparingly” seen police enforcing the 40-km/h limit on Parkside. Safe Parkside has filed a freedom-of-information request to see how many speeding tickets have been issued, but the Toronto Police Service has yet to provide a response, Gholizadeh said.
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Toronto Police told the Sun on Thursday evening that it can’t provide numbers on speeding or enforcement on Parkside Dr. without a freedom-of-information request. In a statement, communications adviser Nadine Ramadan said TPS uses analytics to guide its traffic enforcement work, and has a clear focus on “driver actions and risky driving behaviours.”
“During the period when speed cameras were in place, our enforcement efforts continued just as they do today,” Ramadan wrote.
Safe Parkside has been advocating for safety on the street since 2021. That same year, a husband and wife were killed in a crash at Parkside’s intersection with Spring Rd., north of Lake Shore Blvd.
The group says an orange pylon now sits to the west of Parkside where the speed camera once stood. That camera clearly had enemies, as it was cut down at least seven times.
Parkside lies entirely within Parkdale-High Park ward, which is represented by Gord Perks. The longtime city councillor has announced he won’t run again, and Gholizadeh said he’s hopeful that this fall’s municipal election will bring fresh solutions to Parkside Dr.
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Play VideoSafety issues obvious
While the fixes may not be obvious, the issues are.
While Parkside has a 40-km/h speed limit, it turns into Keele St. north of Bloor St., and some motorists treat it as an “urban highway,” as Gholizadeh put it.
High Park is to the west, while a number of houses on the east side sit atop a steep slope. There’s no sidewalk on the High Park side, and the other one “doesn’t even meet the city’s minimum width,” Gholizadeh said.
“Hopefully the next person will be more willing to bring some safety to the street … there seems to be no appetite to address that issue,” he added. “And that’s the heart of the problem, when everything’s designed for motorists and cars, and safety goes out the window.”
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