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Outside, in the incessant drizzle only steps from where Ford spoke, I was taking aim at speeders in the first community to turn its back on speed cameras. My goal: to clock how many drivers went 10 km/h or more over the limit while Ford made his announcement. Irony, I would argue, is alive and well.

Is speeding a problem in this city? Do we really need speed cameras? Ford clearly has his thoughts, and he took action Thursday. Steven Del Duca, mayor of Vaughan, clearly does, too; his city council halted its speed cam program this month. Drenched and hiding behind a pole by Rutherford Road in Vaughan, I was taking matters into my own hands and gathering my own data. I wanted to see what I could learn.

The limit on this road is 50 km/h, and it was marked on the very pole I stood behind. When the press conference announcing the camera’s demise began steps away at 11:19 a.m., I began clocking speeds.

It didn’t take long to find a driver going 60. Why use 60 as a litmus test? Because while the city won’t say how fast a car needs to go to get a ticket, many will tell you it鈥檚 10 or more over. Reporting by Star columnist Jack Lakey indicates otherwise, but I needed a cut-off, and if it was 50 km/h, I would have lost count.

Ten over it was.

I positioned myself between聽two traffic lights聽and found speeders came in clumps. Tens of cars would pass loosely following the limit, then a group would zip through, sometimes going as fast as the mid-70s. After all, speeding is, in part, a factor of keeping up with traffic flow and perceived pressure to drive faster. I unknowingly and anecdotally proved this.

Some speeders reacted to the gun. I wasn鈥檛 exactly inconspicuous 鈥� I鈥檓 six-foot-four-inches, the only man on a barren sidewalk, stationed next to an umbrella and pointing a radar gun at the road. I was an easy mark. Some cars slowed. I felt powerful.

Others didn鈥檛 care. I聽clocked one car at 75 km/h, a full 50 per cent over the limit.

One police cruiser passed me. The driver聽was, unfortunately, following the speed limit. There would be no documented hypocrisy on this day.

The York Region Transit bus was another story. It was one of the fastest vehicles on the road 鈥� and I suppose, with the failings of public transit across the GTA, the commuters it carried deserved as much.

And for freaking drivers out with a vigilante speed trap, I probably deserved what I got: the better part of an hour in the rain and cold, every piece of clothing soaked and my spirit dampened. I was repeatedly splashed by passing cars; I figured some cars did it on purpose.

As far as I could tell, no one flipped me off. Maybe I just didn鈥檛 see them. I thank the poor visibility for that.

I should note: Where I was standing was聽not the site of an automated speed camera. By provincial law, they are only allowed within community safety zones or school safety zones, and this stretch of Rutherford Road was neither.

The final results were still startling. In the 22 minutes the presser ran 鈥� not including reporter questions 鈥� I clocked 48 cars going 10 or more over. That鈥檚 more than two per minute. And get this: I was standing in a construction zone, in front of a police station, in moderate traffic, in rainy conditions with poor visibility and slick roads.

People like to speed. That is no surprise. I like to speed.

By the time my experiment was over, I had proof of that. And I had proof of this: I need a better rain jacket.