The notorious Parkside Drive speed camera in Toronto’s west end, which has issued more than 67,000 tickets to date, has been cut down for the fifth time in six months.
The community group Safe Parkside issued the notice on Friday and shared a photo of the Parkside Drive speed camera toppled to the grass.
Safe Parkside co-chair Faraz Gholizadeh tells CityNews it appears that the speed camera was vandalized and broken off overnight.
The speed camera has been repeatedly targeted, first being cut down twice in November, with the second incident occurring just a day after it was reinstalled. It was again removed and thrown into a nearby duck pond in December.
“Since its installation, the Parkside Drive speed camera has become Toronto’s busiest speed camera, having issued a whopping 67,786 speeding tickets and generated over $7 million in fines [$7,253,102] to date,” Gholizadeh said. “It also happens to be Toronto’s most vandalized speed camera.”
The Parkside Drive speed camera was installed after two seniors were killed in a multi-vehicle crash at the intersection of Parkside Drive and Spring Road on Oct. 12, 2021.
“Despite Parkside Drive’s long and deadly history of speeding, the City of Toronto continues to overlook safety on Parkside Drive year after year,” Gholizadeh added.
Parkside residents still concerned, claim city is failing to address ongoing issues
Safe Parkside says locals remain concerned that the City of Toronto is failing to address the persisting safety conditions on Parkside Drive.
“A speed camera that has recently spent more time on its side or in a pond than it has upright and functioning has clearly fallen well short of its intended purpose,” Gholizadeh said.
“The lack of meaningful safety measures remains a big concern on Parkside Drive. Despite being a city-designated Community Safety Zone and despite the fact that three people have been killed on Parkside Drive within the last few years, Parkside continues to experience very high numbers of speeding and reckless/careless driving.”
Since 2021, the city has implemented measures to improve safety along Parkside Drive, including reducing the speed limit from 50 to 40 kilometres per hour and adding speed cameras and signs telling motorists to reduce speed.
Last October, Toronto’s city council endorsed a road safety plan for the area to install bi-directional cycling lanes on the west side of Parkside Drive, reducing the number of motor vehicle lanes to one southbound and one northbound lane.
