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‘A knee-jerk reaction’: Vaughan city council votes to cancel speed camera program, Sept. 15

We all have to pay taxes that we don’t have control over. But we don’t have to pay those that are “voluntary.” Don’t want to pay the big price on alcohol? Don’t drink. Cost of cigarettes too high? Give up smoking. Don’t like the fine issued through speed cameras? Drive the speed limit.

In every municipality,Ìýdata supports that speed cameras slow people down. With very few revenue generating powers, Mayor Del Duca is shutting down this program to replace it with some “yet to be determined” solution to speeding. Good luck.

If Del Duca is concerned with the financial burden on citizens having to pay fines, why not keep speed cameras and make the threshold for the tolerable speed limit higher before a ticket is issued? Why throw the baby out with the bathwater? Isn’t this preferable to relying on police running radar traps when those resources can be better used addressing the far more serious issue of rising crime in Vaughan (home invasions and shootings)?

Del Duca was Minister of Transportation in the Kathleen Wynne government when municipalities were given the authority to install speed cameras. How ironic!

Sharon Miller, Toronto

Del Duca isÌýprioritizing speed over public safety

As a former Whitchurch-Stouffville town councillor who’s had relatives seriously injured, and friends killed, by speeding vehicles, I’m saddened at Mayor Steven Del Duca’s naked populism in tearing down the cameras.

He knows they work.

They aggravate, but they slow drivers. The research across the world is overwhelming.

Cameras even generate money for municipalities, rather than costing them an average of $150K per year per police officer assigned to traffic duty. But clearly Del Duca values short term appeasement of the fastest-driving, most dangerous constituents, rather than saving lives in Vaughan.Ìý

I feel deeply sorry for Del Duca’s constituents and hope he rethinks this decision before more road users and pedestrians are endangered by this prioritizing of speed over public safety.

Stephen Bellerby, Toronto

Three solutions to our traffic woes

I have three suggestions to help the traffic situation that currently exists. First, on streets like Parkview Avenue, remove the cameras and put in more traffic lights. Speeding then involves demerit points and has real significance. Secondly, where cameras do exist make the first two violations warnings, with the third a penalty. Thirdly, in the downtown core eliminate right turns on red lights. When I am polite and try not to fill the box, cars often make it impossible for me as they fill it from the right. As a result, the box is filled even when considerate drivers try to keep it open.

Michael Gilbert, TorontoÌý

Proposed high-speed rail route doesn’t run the VIA ‘Toronto-Quebec City corridor’

Nation-building designation could get high-speed rail line built faster and for less, CEO says, Sept. 15

What a load of cobblers seems an appropriate phrase for the misinformation being spouted about the current proposal for high-speed rail in the “Toronto-Quebec City corridor.”

The article states that the new trains can travel “as fast as 300 kilometres an hour” while “VIA trains in that corridor can currently travel at a maximum speed of half that speed and are often delayed because they share tracks with freight trains.”

VIA trains serve communities such as Ajax, Pickering, Oshawa, Cobourg, Port Hope, Trenton, Belleville, Kingston, Gananoque and Cornwall, that is the north shore of Lake Ontario and along the St. Lawrence River. The proposed new route for the “corridor” serves Peterborough only.ÌýIt will provide no new service for the many communities saddled with VIA’s antiquated service of today.

The article closed with a claim that the new train service will “significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” That claim seems hardly credible since it is clearly not replacing the diesel train service in place today.

For year after year, study after study and numerous promises by Ottawa to the communities along the shores of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence, this high speed route is a gross betrayal. No ground has been broken yet, so there is time to rectify this travesty by putting service back where it belongs.

David Kister, Kingston, ON

Loosen the purse strings and sign Bo now!

Blue Jays hope to get shortstop Bo Bichette back during playoffs, Sept. 16

The Blue Jays have had an incredible run, virtually assured to make the playoffs and likely to clinch the American League East Division. Certainly one of the cornerstones of this resurgence has been shortstop Bo Bichette, It’s time ownership sign him to a long-term contract similar to Vlad Guerrero Jr.

Since July, the Rogers Centre has enjoyed sellouts. The additional ticket revenue—no chump change—is sure to continue through the playoffs. There’s no excuse for Roger’s Communication Inc. not to loosen the purse strings and allow the two Amigos to finish their careers in Toronto, hopefully as Hall of Famers.

Mike Biderman, Thornhill, ON

Seeing Trump’s royal welcome is the last straw. It’s time to cut ties with the Monarchy

Trump enjoys royal pageantry during unprecedented second UK state visit, Sept. 17

Having grown up and spent more than seven decades of my life as a Canadian, living with a constitutional monarchy, it’s time to say “enough.”

Any time I have questioned our ties to the monarchy during the past 40 years or so, I have always come to the conclusion, sometimes reluctant, that our ties to the monarchy, even though mostly irrelevant as well as costing our taxpayers, should be maintained. As a university graduate in history, I have always felt we should maintain these historical connections.

But it is time to say good-bye. Watching our current king welcome the president of the United States, a convicted felon, a tyrant and dictator, a blatant liar and a violator of his own constitution, a world leader who has threatened the very sovereignty of a member of the Commonwealth made me sick.

It’s time to say “No more!” I do not wish to be associated with this monarchy that welcomes such an evil leader as a fellow king.... exactly want he wants.

ÌýDuncan Craig, Gravenhurst, ON