The death of speed cameras in Ottawa — even in school zones — has predictably seen a jump in speeding, but what else is going on and how the heck do you even start to finance safety measures that used to be covered by what
Doug Ford called “cash-grab”
speed cameras
?
Those speed cameras, from U.S.-headquartered Verra Mobility, hauled in $24 million in 2024.
Just 60 speed cameras. They raked in $20 million from January to August 2025.
That money was used exclusively for safety measures across town — mostly intersections. Paid for itself.
Well, the gravy train has left the station.
What about safety since the program was cancelled?
If you look at the data — shocker —
driver compliance
showed sustained and continuous improvement year after year. Only 17 per cent of drivers kept within the posted limit before the speed cameras were installed.
But after four years of the “cash-grab” cameras, 87 per cent of drivers were down with the speed limit, particularly in school zones.
Also, what busy and skilled city staff call “high-end speeding” had dropped to a remarkable 0.3 per cent. High-end speeding is anything 15km/h over the posted limit.
So that went out the door on Nov. 13,
when the speed cameras were pulled
.
How do we know whether people are speeding again?
Well,
when Ford yanked those cash-grabbers
out of the ground, the city had its workers install speed trackers at eight original pilot sites to see what’s going on. No cost to the taxpayer because the city already owned the speed trackers.
That’s where we got the stats I listed above about before and after these damn speed cameras. The provincial government put them in, and then took them out.
What’s the view from the council table?
Ottawa Coun. Tim Tierney is the chair of the city’s public works and infrastructure committee.
“The province gave us power which made school zones safer, saved road safety action, and now we’re damned as the province takes that away, and more cost for policing and the ultimate cost is safety of students,” Tierney told me.
“Well, the province giveth and taketh away, and now we’re starting from scratch to rebuild something that wasn’t broken.
“We’re all paying for this,” he said.
He says the big signs that replaced speed cameras are a distraction.
What about those signs?
MTO is still working on the final bilingual sign design. They’re made of wood, not aluminum, so they will rot in Canadian elements. They have to be really high off the ground so kids are seen behind them in school zones. The base will be installed with concrete so the signs don’t blow over in strong winds.
There will be solar-powered blinking lights, too.
So the police have more to do
If Ottawa cops didn’t have enough on the go already, they rolled out
new traffic units
after the speed cameras were removed.
That’s another sergeant and four more constables, with plans to build up to seven constables to patrol high-risk streets.
So speed cameras can’t issue demerit points, but cops can and they are. So there’s that.
They’ve been issuing them for speeding in school zones and rolling through stop signs, according to Tierney.
So where did the speed cameras go?
The cameras were sent back to the company that made them. Turns out they were on lease. At $72,000 a pop, that seems like a good lease given the city can’t use them anymore.
The bumps with speed bumps
The good news is the city has authority over where they go. But they’ve always been a problem — specifically for emergency vehicles, Para Transpo and snow clearing. The province is supposed to pay for it, but the city has absolute power over where they go.
Where the city is tracking drivers’ speed
The city is tracking speed data at several locations across Ottawa. The pilot project has already begun, and they’ll be collecting data at on a monthly basis. The city expects to have data processed early next week.
- Longfields Drive northbound near Via Verona Avenue
- Innes Road eastbound near Provence Avenue
- Bayshore Drive southbound near 50 Bayshore Drive
- Katimavik Road westbound near Castlefrank Road
- Watters Road eastbound near Charlemagne Boulevard
- Ogilvie Road westbound near Appleford Street
- Smyth Road westbound near Edgecombe Street
- Meadowlands Drive West westbound near Thatcher Street
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