The city is taking steps towards the introduction of photo radar in school zones but the next provincial government will likely have to sign off before the technology can actually be installed.
A staff report that will go before the Public Works Committee on June 12 recommends that council designate the “extended frontages” of the 754 kindergarten to Grade 8 schools under the jurisdiction of the Toronto District School Board and Toronto Catholic District School Board as community safety zones.
The report says that such a designation would provide the “immediate benefit” of speeding fines being doubled in “key walking and biking routes to schools” while allowing for the eventual implementation of photo radar once the next provincial government officially proclaims the applicable sections of the Safer School Zones Act to be in effect.
That act, which was formally adopted last year, authorizes the use of automated speed enforcement systems, such as photo radar and red light cameras, in community safety zones where the speed limit is below 80 kilometres per hour.
The staff report says that by designating the roads in front of some schools as community safety zones and installing the necessary signage, those areas would be eligible for inclusion in a photo radar pilot project that is expected to take place later this year.
The report estimates that staff will be able to install the necessary signage in 250 to 300 of the 754 schools by the end of 2018 with the rest to follow by the end of 2019.
Speaking with reporters at an unrelated news conference in Scarborough on Thursday morning, Mayor John Tory said that the hope is to eventually have community safety zones in place outside all elementary schools, including those outside of the jurisdiction of the TDSB and TCDSB.
“All schools under any of the school boards we have, plural, will be included in the program and be eligible for the photo radar,” he said. “They (staff) started with the biggest schools boards with greatest number of schools and we are now moving on to deal with other school boards with smaller number of schools.”
The staff report pegs the cost of installing the necessary signage outside 754 kindergarten to Grade 8 schools at $1 million.
The report says the community safety zones will span “from intersection to intersection along the frontage of the schools.”
