Three more speed cameras were vandalized earlier this week, with two along Avenue Road and one on Mount Pleasant cut down. Courtney Heels reports. <\/p>\n
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says there are \u201ca million different ways\u201d that can slow drivers down instead of using automated speed enforcement (ASE) cameras, vowing to reveal those methods next week.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters at an unrelated news conference outside of ice cream manufacturer Chapman\u2019s on Friday, Ford answered a question regarding the comments the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) made about speed cameras, urging the premier to reconsider their use.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a chair and he\u2019s doing his job. If I go to my doctors and I\u2019m eating this ice cream and say, \u2018Doug, stop eating ice cream,\u2019 but there\u2019s better ways to slow down traffic than gouge the taxpayer,\u201d said Ford, who snacked on an ice cream sandwich during the news conference.<\/p>\n
The OACP<\/a> voiced their support for speed cameras on Thursday, calling on the premier to reconsider his plan to remove them entirely. <\/p>\n \u201cEmploying ASE tools has been proven to reduce speeding, change driver behaviour, and make our roads safer for everyone\u2014drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, and especially children and other vulnerable road users,\u201d the association wrote.<\/p>\n Ford, however, says there are two ways to penalize speeding: punishing those drivers and fining them. In the premier\u2019s view, the speed cameras do nothing more than take \u201chundreds of millions of dollars out\u201d of the pockets of taxpaying Ontarians. <\/p>\n \u201cGod knows the government gouges people enough on their taxes and every other penny they get off them. All I\u2019m saying is you want to slow down traffic; stay tuned next week: I\u2019m going to show you,\u201d Ford said. <\/p>\n \u201cI spent four years in Toronto, my brother slowing traffic, I can bring it to a halt. I can bring it below the speed limit, but they don\u2019t want to do that \u2026 if they really want to slow people down, I will show them how to slow people down.\u201d<\/p>\n Ford pointed to measures like turnabouts, speed bumps, and installing flashing lights by school zones as a handful of the \u201cmillion different ways\u201d that can slow people down. <\/p>\n While Chief Mark Campbell, president of the OACP, acknowledges Ford\u2019s government has \u201calways been focused\u201d on public safety, adding the organization is \u201coverwhelmingly aligned\u201d with the province\u2019s position to use other tools to augment road and traffic safety, Campbell says a collection of measures is needed to change drivers\u2019 behaviours and make roads safe. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a one-size-fits-all. It\u2019s not that it should just only be automated speed enforcement. It\u2019s really a collection of all of those issues that should be aligned to ensure that we are enhancing road and traffic safety in our communities,\u201d Campbell told CP24 on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n Toronto looking at \u2018alternative installation methods\u2019 for ASEs<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Mayor Olivia Chow says the city is looking at \u201calternative installation methods\u201d to make it harder for vandals to target automated speed enforcement (ASE) cameras<\/a> after more than a dozen of them were vandalized or cut down throughout Toronto this month.<\/p>\n Chow made the comment to reporters following an unrelated news conference earlier on Friday, saying that the city is also asking Police Chief Myron Demkiw to \u201cstep up on the monitoring and catching (of) those criminals\u201d behind the vandalism. <\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s comments were made after at least 20 ASE cameras in Toronto were damaged in September, including three that were chopped down along Avenue Road and Mount Pleasant Avenue over the weekend.<\/p>\n Sixteen cameras across Toronto were either downed or vandalized over the course of a single night earlier this month and, days earlier, the speed camera on Parkside Drive was toppled for the seventh time<\/a> this year. <\/p>\n Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw has previously said officers would be deployed to conduct traffic enforcement<\/a> in the areas where cameras were being cut down. <\/p>\n The city has said it has received more than 800 reported incidents<\/a> of vandalism involving speed cameras this year, although most were \u201cminor\u201d incidents and did not knock them out of service. <\/p>\n The city noted all speed cameras are located in community safety zones, like schools, playgrounds and hospitals.<\/p>\n Ontario Premier Doug Ford has dubbed these cameras a \u201ctax grab,\u201d<\/a> and went on to suggest they unfairly target motorists who are driving slightly over the speed limit. <\/p>\n \u201cHopefully the cities will get rid of them\u2026 or I\u2019m going to help them get rid of them very shortly,\u201d Ford told reporters on Sept. 9. Soon after the premier\u2019s remarks, the City of Vaughan suspended its speed camera program<\/a>\u2014earning Ford\u2019s praise.<\/p>\n