海角社区官网

This has been the summer of the speed camera.

The much-loathed devices have been in the spotlight across the city of 海角社区官网and the province of Ontario, drawing the ire of drivers who keep getting dinged with fines, who have found little solace in the words of community advocates and experts who extol the cameras鈥� virtues.

Some have called for the brakes to be put on the whole program; others have been taking matters into their own hands.

The anger toward speed cameras is a phenomenon that extends beyond the ongoing saga of the Parkside Drive speed camera, taken down by vandals six times in the past 10 months. Many municipalities are beginning or expanding camera programs, and facing all kinds of headaches as they do.

In Vaughan, after thousands of tickets were issued and countless complaints followed, the city decided to pause its speed-camera program. In Brampton, there was a 5,000-plus-person petition to shut the devices down and stop using them. A 海角社区官网councillor tried to make a motion to do something similar in the city, decrying them as speed traps. Elsewhere, there鈥檚 been a speed camera ticket scam targeting residents 鈥� people getting text messages saying they鈥檝e been caught on camera. Authorities have reminded the public that鈥檚 not how people are contacted if they鈥檙e caught speeding.

And the cameras themselves are taking a beating. In Guelph, two speed cameras were knocked over in the past week. Earlier this spring, nine cameras were defaced in Vaughan, including some on hydro poles that required 50-foot ladders to reach. (One man was arrested, and police are still looking for others.) In late May, a speed camera was stolen in Paris, Ont.

While the Parkside Drive camera has been the focus in Toronto, the Star has learned that since last November 鈥� the first time it was cut down 鈥� 18 other pole-mounted cameras have been knocked down. In the month of July alone, 24 of them were stolen.

What鈥檚 wrong with this picture? What is it about speed cameras that is driving some to distraction? What is it about them that many of us seem to hate so much?

Speed up for your close-up

The complaints about speed cameras are legion: They鈥檙e not visible enough; the speed limits they鈥檙e enforcing aren鈥檛 fair; they don鈥檛 work; they don鈥檛 get results.聽

The problem, advocates say, is the opposite: they do get results.

Speed cameras are a proven technology. Study after study, including a recent local one from the Hospital for Sick Children, has shown that they improve public safety. There was even a CAA study that showed that 73 per cent of people were broadly supportive of speed cameras 鈥� although that sentiment is not always evident.聽

Online comments on any Parkside Drive speed camera news article have some lionizing the vandals as Robin Hood-type heroes.

It鈥檚 notable that the first speed-measuring devices and cameras were built in the pursuit of going faster. Invented by Dutch race car driver Mauricio Gatsonides, they were initially used in the 1950s on race tracks to measure speed in corners.

But Gatsonides realized they could be used as a safety tool for traffic enforcement. In 1964, he combined a camera and speed-measuring device and called it the Gatsometer, which became colloquially known as 鈥溾�� across most of Europe.

Ontario first experimented with photo radar in the 1990s on 400-series highways, but the plan was met with massive opposition, so it was scrapped. In 2019, the provincial government allowed municipalities to bring in speed cameras, and 海角社区官网started using them in 2020. Now, there are 198 locations across the city.

Surveillance state of rage

Experts believe the surveillance aspect of the cameras is one reason people lash out against them.

Krystle Shore is an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo who studies surveillance.

We often turn to cameras because they give a sense of action and protection, she said.

鈥淭hey say they鈥檙e looking to make their streets safer for children 鈥� but is that what is actually happening here?鈥� she added, speaking specifically about what鈥檚 happening at Parkside Drive.

The Parkside Drive speed camera was put after a chain-reaction crash left two people dead after a driver came barrelling down the road at over 120 km/h. The camera is the most prolific in the city, handing out over 70,000 tickets and $8 million in fines since being installed in April 2022. Despite that, residents don鈥檛 feel it has made the street safer or slowed down drivers.

Perhaps other methods, such as changes to street design, might need to be looked at to gain the desired outcome, Shore said. Surveillance can often seem like a quick fix, but many of these cameras are being installed with little consultation, while the consequences 鈥� drivers getting a ticket days after they drove through the area 鈥� can be enraging, she said.

鈥淭his example of surveillance is sitting there looking at you, watching you and leading to very concrete, quick outcomes, like fines. So I think it鈥檚 bubbled up to this hot button issue, where people are pushing back at a broader surveillance society.鈥�

Most of us accept that we live in a surveillance society because we really don鈥檛 have much choice, she said. Surveillance measures are supposed to bring benefits, like increasing safety; speed cameras are supposed to be a deterrent that slows everyone down.

One problem is, many drivers think they know better.聽

Driver overconfidence

We tend to think we are very good drivers.聽

Studies have shown that 80 per cent of drivers believe they are better than the average driver. That鈥檚 statistically impossible, but it鈥檚 this attitude that leads many people to ignore speeding laws, said Helen Wells, senior lecturer in Criminology at Keele University in the United Kingdom.

Wells has been studying speed, roads and law enforcement for over two decades, and has already seen a lot of what鈥檚 happening in this city over in the U.K.聽

鈥淭he interesting thing about speed cameras is that they really crystallize that problem that speeding is so endemic and that everybody does it,鈥� Wells said.

鈥淭hat means that lots of people 鈥� who see themselves as law-abiding, good, honest citizens who pay their taxes and therefore sort of own policing to a degree 鈥� suddenly find out they鈥檙e on the receiving end of policing.鈥�

Wells said she got interested in studying speed after working in a lower court, fielding calls from people complaining about speeding tickets 鈥� effectively saying that because they were law-abiding citizens, there must be something wrong with the laws.

She鈥檚 said people鈥檚 confidence in their driving lets them think they can be the judge of when they can break the rules. This leads people to experiment with risk, like, for example, sending a text while driving. That could be breaking a distracted driving law, but people will continue to do it until there鈥檚 a consequence 鈥� the same with speeding.

鈥淪peeding is really, really important in that respect, because you鈥檙e able to believe that when you get caught, that is unfair and unjustified,鈥� said Wells. And with the cameras, 鈥渢he fact that you are getting a letter days later, after the fact, is proof you didn鈥檛 hurt anybody, because if you did, something far worse would have happened.鈥�

Similar to what is happening in 海角社区官网on Parkside Drive and beyond, cameras have a history of being attacked in the U.K., although with a little more British flair. In the early 2000s, a famous culprit was known for wearing a plastic mask of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair.

鈥淲e had this particular character who called himself Captain Gatso, and he went round chopping down speed cameras and publicizing what he did. He would chainsaw them. There were a few copycats as well who would like to put a tire around the top of the speed camera and set fire to it and melt it,鈥� said Wells.

So how did the U.K. get from literal speed cameras on fire to general acceptance?

According to Wells, a lot of refinements to the program, time, patience and alternative punishment options for speeders. Among the things that changed were where the fine money went 鈥� initially, it went to the police, but that changed to the municipality (which is what happens here). The cameras were also made more visible, and average speed cameras started being used, which track speed over a distance as opposed to a single moment in time 鈥� something Wells said drivers find more fair.

鈥淥ne of the big deciding moments was if you haven鈥檛 been caught for the previous three years, you get offered a speed-awareness course rather than get the fine and the points,鈥� she said.

In London, speed cameras are no longer being regularly destroyed. In part, that鈥檚 because cameras enforcing vehicle emissions standards have instead become the targets of vandals 鈥� a group calling themselves the Bladerunners 鈥� so even though there鈥檚 been progress, there are still people who are irritated enough to act out.

The lessons from the U.K. show how public frustration often centres on questions of fairness, like what is the speed threshold for a ticket or whether the program looks like a cash grab.

In Vaughan, the speed camera program was paused shortly after it was launched because more than 32,000 tickets were issued to drivers in just three weeks, which was a shock to everyone. Politicians changed the program to instead issue warnings, so that residents can get acclimatized.聽

Media validation

Vandalism isn鈥檛 often covered by mainstream media unless there is something unusual about it, like, say, the same camera being repeatedly cut down. Wells noted some articles anthropomorphize the camera, talking about the camera鈥檚 鈥渂eheadings鈥� and 鈥渂eing dismembered鈥� (this Star reporter admits to being guilty of this).

TPS has not said anything about suspects in the Parkside Drive case and has not commented on the question of whether it is becoming a copycat crime, but the city has confirmed dozens of incidents since last November.

One thing likely fuelling that is the social media reaction that, for the most part, supports the vandals. Jaqueline Helfgott is a professor and director of Seattle University鈥檚 Crime and Justice research centre, as well as the author of 鈥淐opycat Crime: How Media, Technology, and Digital Culture Inspire Criminal Behaviour and Violence.鈥�

She took a look at the online commentary on TikTok about the Parkside camera takedowns and noticed how much of it talked about the culprit as a hero. The comparison may seem extreme, but she sees similarities to the online support in the U.S. with the case of Luigi Mangione, who shot and killed a Healthcare CEO and was hailed by some as a vigilante folk hero.

鈥淚t鈥檚 validating the individual who is engaging in the behaviour and telling a story about the crime as if it鈥檚 a Robin Hood superhero situation, where the people are being saved from corrupt governmental officials,鈥� said Helfgott.

That messaging also helps spread the copycat effect, but Helfgott acknowledges there鈥檚 no way to know if it is a copycat crime until arrests are made. (At a press conference this week, TPS Supt. Kelly Skinner said the investigation is looking to see if there is some connection between the various speed camera crimes.)

And though it may feel like everyone hates speed cameras, surveys indicate it鈥檚 a minority who comprise Ontario鈥檚 fast and furious. Experts say curbing that sentiment and gaining greater acceptance may be a matter of program changes, more public education, charges against some of the current vandals, or a mix of all three.