WELLINGTON COUNTY – In the first two weeks of operation for the county’s speed cameras, more than 7,000 tickets were issued – and some cameras have yet to go live.
“Initially we can expect a high number images to be sent and tickets issued,” county roads committee chair and Mapleton Mayor Gregg Davidson told fellow members of council.
Speaking during the Jan. 30 council meeting, Davidson said automated speed enforcement went live in the county on Jan. 15.
Five locations are currently operating, including community safety zones in Centre Wellington, Puslinch, Wellington North, Mapleton and Minto.
“The other sites – Guelph/Eramosa and Erin – are still awaiting Hydro One approvals,” Davidson said.
He didn’t initially provide the number of tickets that had been issued, but told council there were many speeders.
“In the first few days there were just three cameras live, and there were a lot of vehicles going through past the threshold that we had set as council,” Davidson explained.
He made a point of emphasizing the speed threshold that activates the cameras was decided upon by council, rather than by the for-profit company that operates the cameras.
“There are some people in the community thinking that the company that we have partnered with [is] setting the threshold, but that threshold is set here by council,” Davidson said.
Asked previously what that threshold is, Davidson would not reveal it, nor would he say what portion of fine revenue goes to the company – Global Traffic Group – and what portion to the county, citing contract confidentiality.
Davidson told council the vendor has advised that a high number of tickets is to be expected in the beginning stages of the program.
“Driving behaviour will change once people start getting those tickets,” he said. “Our ultimate goal is to have people slow down.”
It was councillor Michael Dehn, mayor of the Town of Erin, who asked whether any of the tickets had been sent out yet.
The response from Davidson was affirmative.
As of Jan. 29, he said, 7,194 penalty notices had been mailed out.
Puslinch Mayor James Sealey called the number “astonishing,” but seemed to think the cameras are making a difference.
“From my perspective, the speed through Aberfoyle has slowed dramatically,” Sealey said, referencing the area on Brock Road where the Puslinch cameras are located.
He asked whether signage could be improved to provide additional warning to drivers, noting the regulatory signs for speed cameras are small and white, and the road through Aberfoyle covered by the cameras is four lanes.
He suggested larger or possibly yellow signs might draw more attention and provide more warning for visiting drivers.
“We don’t want to give tickets; we just want to get people to slow down,” said Sealey.
Councillor Jeff Duncan emphasized automated speed enforcement has been implemented as a pilot program, and asked whether additional data – such as the volume of traffic during the time the 7,000+ tickets were issued – could be provided to help understand the effectiveness of the pilot.
Davidson said there will be a number of reports to come from the pilot.
“We have all that information coming to us,” he said.
The pilot project includes seven community safety zones where cameras are located – one in each of the county’s member municipalities.
The cameras in Guelph/Eramosa (on Main Street North in Rockwood) and in Erin (on Trafalgar Road in Hillsburgh) have yet to go live.
Of the other five locations, Davidson could not say which accounted for the most tickets issued in the first two weeks of the program.
The Centre Wellington cameras, which are on Belsyde Avenue in Fergus, and the Puslinch cameras, which are on Brock Road South in Aberfoyle, along with Main Street in Palmerston and Sligo Road in Mount Forest, were among the first to go live, so may account for a greater portion of tickets, he said.
Davidson added he expects people have already started to receive tickets, which get mailed out to the registered owner of the vehicle captured on camera.
The tickets generated on the cameras’ first day of operation on Jan. 15, would have been mailed the following Tuesday, Davidson said.
