Driving Safety Forward with Speed Camera Technology in Brant County, ON
An expansive county on the outskirts of Toronto begins a pilot program to address safety concerns in designated Community Safe Zones with automated speed enforcement.
The Challenge
Brant County, located in southern Ontario, is home to a diverse range of urban and rural areas with over 2,000 kilometers of roadways. The county is home to around 40,000 residents residing in 3 main urban centers, along with several charming towns and hamlets. With its blend of natural beauty, farmland, and local heritage, Brant County is an attractive destination for those seeking a quieter lifestyle while still in reach of major urban centers like Hamilton and Toronto.
In 2019, the county developed the Brant Safe Street Strategy for a unified approach to resident safety concerns. Residents can register their complaints, and the County uses a variety of approaches to mitigate speeding. Some tools the County uses to address speeding include Traffic Logix speed boards and recycled speed humps, both of which have been pivotal in changing driver behavior and improving traffic and pedestrian safety on local streets. But the County still often sees areas where speeding persists despite existing measures.
In Brant, there are specific Community Safe Zones that identify areas that are higher risk. These often include roads near schools, daycare facilities, playgrounds, hospitals, or senior residences. In many neighborhoods, these are busy around the clock as schools double as community centers, offering children and dogs green space to play in.
Today, there are 22 designated Community Safety Zones in Brant. While these only account for under 5 kms of the County’s 2,200 kms of roads, they are the highest priority because they’re key to community safety. When local legislation allowed for the use of Automated Speed Cameras (ASE) in these zones, Brant wanted to explore this option to further enhance safety, mitigate risk, and ensure that Safe Zones are indeed safe.
The Solution
The county began a pilot program to implement automated speed enforcement in their designated Safe Zones. The Traffic Logix speed cameras were one of only a few that complied with Ministry of Transportation guidelines. But the existing relationship with the company was even more pivotal in the county’s choice of speed cameras. “They’ve come down to the County of Brant, met with us, and really worked with us on solutions to help us move forward…” noted Adam Crozier, the Director of Corporate Strategy for the County of Brant.
The pilot program aims to install 3 speed cameras in Safe Zones in the first year, with plans to expand the program each year.
The goal is to eventually deploy speed cameras in all 22 Safe Zones to ensure that they are, indeed, safer for the vulnerable populations that use them every day.
The county will assess a variety of risk factors such as traffic volume, truck volume, pedestrian fatalities, and history of traffic collisions to determine which Safe Zones should be prioritized.
While some cities rotate speed cameras, Brant wanted to install them permanently, in recognition of data that shows that the benefits reduce in areas where camera systems are removed. The county is rolling out their speed camera program slowly to encourage community acceptance and ultimately lead to a more successful program.
While the public often perceives speed cameras negatively, the county wants to ensure that they can see tangible benefits from the camera program. To this end, they are beginning with a single test camera, launched simultaneously with a public education campaign. The camera will be posted along with a sign notifying drivers that camera enforcement will be active in 90 days time. Signage will also be mounted displaying the fines that will accompany different speeding violations to discourage drivers from dangerous driving. Prioritizing a slow roll out is important to the county to make sure that local residents are on board and aware of the benefits of the cameras.
The Benefits
With the pilot program underway and plans to expand speed camera use to all of Brant’s designated safe zones, the county aims to improve traffic and pedestrian safety by reducing vehicle speeds and enhancing driver awareness. The process of speed camera use in Ontario is more thorough than in many other areas, requiring the county to be involved in every step of the program including installation, review, issuing violations, and reviewing appeals.
The goal of Brant in installing speed cameras is not to “just address speeding in a specific area,” notes Crozier. “It’s trying to get people to be more mindful of speeding in their everyday driving.”
The signs will often be located on streets where children walk to school or are outside playing. The speed cameras will encourage drivers to travel at safe speeds to keep them safe.
Revenues from the program will first cover operating expenses including equipment, installation, and operating costs, and will then be allocated to other roads safety initiatives such as speed humps and road diets, which can be costly and are largely underfunded. In that way, the speed cameras will contribute not only to the safety of community safety zones, but also to additional roads throughout the county.
With the ambitious goal of eventually installing speed cameras in all 22 of the county’s Safe Zones, the county of Brant is confident in the ability of speed cameras to change the way people drive on their streets. And they’re grateful to have such a responsive and dedicated company to work with along the way.