I wonder if some of the drivers complaining about speed cameras in Toronto are really more angry about having to go 40 kilometres an hour on a busy road such as Parkside Drive. To me, it’s a speed that doesn’t really make sense anywhere, especially because most of us are used to going 50 and know what that feels like without having to constantly take our eyes off the road to check the speedometer. I get that lower speeds are probably safer for pedestrians and cyclists, but where does it end? If 40 is safer, wouldn’t 20, 10 or even five kilometres an hour be safer still? Maybe instead of coddling pedestrians, we could go back to teaching people how to look both ways before crossing the street like Elmer the Safety Elephant used to when I was a kid. – Terry, Toronto
Bathurst St., just south of St. Clair Ave., in Toronto is a 40 kilometre-an-hour zone. Research shows a pedestrian has a 29 per cent chance of dying when hit by a car travelling at 50 kilometres an hour and 10 per cent at 37 kilometres an hour.Chittley, Jordan/The Globe and Mail
Lower speeds make roads safer, but there are practical limits on how low they can go.
“A slower road is going to be safer, period,” said Craig Lyon, director of road safety engineering with the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF), an Ottawa-based nonprofit. But “there’s a balance between safety and mobility. If cars could only go five kilometres an hour, we’d have pretty safe roads, but we wouldn’t get very far very fast.”
In Ontario, speed cameras are only allowed in community safety zones, which are in areas that typically see a lot of pedestrians, including near schools, hospitals, parks and long-term care homes.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has pledged to ban speed cameras, despite proof that they work to lower speeds. But last week, 20 Ontario mayors proposed a compromise, including sending scofflaws a warning instead of a fine for their first ticket.
How much over the speed limit can I go before getting a photo radar ticket?
In Toronto, the cameras are only in areas with speed limits between 30 and 60 kilometres an hour – and those limits are in effect 24 hours a day, Kate Lear, a city spokeswoman, said in an email.
“Ninety-five per cent of cameras are located in community safety zones near schools,” Lear said. “The remaining 5 per cent are located in community safety zones near seniors’ homes, parks and areas with high pedestrian traffic as mandated by the province.”
Those areas include Parkside Drive, alongside High Park, where, after an elderly couple was killed in a five-car crash at a red light in 2021, the city lowered the speed limit to 40 kilometres an hour from 50, installed a speed camera and new traffic signs telling drivers to slow down and allowed curb-side parking 24 hours a day.
While speeds went down – by June 2023, southbound speeds had decreased 17 per cent to 51 kilometres an hour from 62 – speeding is still common, according to Safe Parkside, a non-profit community group on a mission to make Parkside Drive safer. Since the Parkside Drive camera was installed in April 2022, the city has issued more than 68,000 tickets and generated roughly $7.3-million in fines for the city (based on a $107 ticket) from it.
But the number of tickets issued by the camera, which has been repeatedly targeted by vandals, has generally been decreasing as more drivers have slowed down - for example, the camera issued 3,586 tickets in April 2022, 1,729 in April 2023 and 1,153 in April 2024.
On Parkside, the number of crashes dropped to 158 in 2023 from 232 in 2019, the city said.
Parkside Drive next to High Park in Toronto where a speed camera used to be. The camera was cut from the post by vandals on May 22, 2025 and this is what remained on May 29.Jordan Chittley/The Globe and Mail
Should 40 be the new 50?
There’s plenty of research showing that lower speeds are safer.
A 2019 analysis of collision research found that a pedestrian has a 50-per-cent chance of dying when hit by a car travelling at 59 kilometres an hour. That drops to 29 per cent at 50 kilometres an hour, 10 per cent at 37 kilometres an hour and to 5 per cent at 30 kilometres an hour.
Even just a one-kilometre-an-hour hike in speed can make it more likely that a pedestrian will die in a crash, the analysis showed.
A 2024 study of Edmonton showed a 25-per-cent drop in collisions between pedestrians and cars and a 31-per-cent drop in pedestrian injuries and fatalities after speed limits on residential streets were lowered to 40 kilometres an hour from 50 there in 2021.
“There’s lots of evidence from around the world that lower speed limits have reduced crashes and crash severity,” Lyon said. “I mean, there’s no doubt on that.”
But the limits also have to make sense for how a road is designed and used, he said.
“If it’s a roadway that’s super wide and there’s no on-street parking [or traffic-calming measures such as curb extensions or speed bumps], you could be going 40 and it would feel like going 20," he said. “Then you would have to redesign some of the roadway so that a lower speed would make sense.”
Even when streets are designed to slow down traffic, there will still be drivers who speed anyway, he said. That’s why enforcement, including speed cameras, is still necessary.
“Without enforcement, they might as well have no law really,” he said. “[Speed cameras] are a good thing to consider instead of sending police officers out there with a radar gun in shifts - cameras can monitor speeds 24/7 and let officers take care of serious crime.”
Limits set for a reason?
If you’re a driver frustrated by a 40-kilometre-an-hour speed limit, consider the people who live in the neighbourhood that you’re driving through, said Angelo DiCicco, chief executive officer of the Ontario Safety League, a non-profit focusing on driver safety and education.
“[Often], the reason cities have reduced the speed limit is because traffic calming measures haven’t worked,” DiCicco said. “I wonder if [people complaining about speed cameras and lower speed limits] would still take offence in their own neighbourhood where their kid goes to school.”
While speed limits are clearly posted – along with signs saying they’re enforced by speed cameras – drivers need to pay attention, he said.
“I do have some empathy for people who find themselves in a school zone or a reduced speed area with a camera who are unaware of it. Nobody would like a surprise in the mail,” he said. “But if it’s your second time or hundredth time driving through that zone, then you should be pretty aware of what the rules and the laws are.”
There’s no evidence that lower speed limits make it less likely for drivers to pay attention to the road because they’re focused on the speedometer, Lyon said.
“[That argument] is an example of motivated reasoning," he said, adding that lower speeds give drivers more time to react.
DiCicco agrees that lower speeds can be frustrating, especially if you’re in a hurry.
“For me personally, it can feel painfully slow to go 40 in a zone that looks wide open and clear as far as my eyes can see,” he said. " Most of us know what 50 kilometres an hour feels like without thinking about it too much… [so] I rely on technology and set my adaptive cruise control at 40 kilometres an hour."
Greater responsibility?
Traffic-calming and enforcement can only do so much to make roads safer – drivers and pedestrians need to understand and follow the rules. That means education, DiCicco said.
"Elmer the Safety Elephant is still alive and well," DiCicco said of the kids’ safety education program that has been around since 1947. “He’s making trips to local grade schools and warning the students of how to get in and out of school safely because [not all drivers] obey the rules of the road.
While pedestrians should be looking up from their phones before crossing the street and kids shouldn’t be chasing basketballs into the street without looking, drivers will always have a greater responsibility because cars can injure and kill, he said.
“If you’re going 40 kilometres an hour in a 40 zone, you’ll add maybe an extra minute at the most to your commute," he said. “But you don’t end up with a ticket – or blood on the hood of your car.”
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