I have a question about making a left turn at an intersection with a red-light camera. When there’s a green light and I see the possibility to make the turn, I move up into the intersection. But if oncoming traffic is speeding, I can’t turn safely. So, if I am forced to wait until the light turns red to make my turn, will I get a ticket for running a red light? – Mike, Toronto
A red-light camera at Bathurst St. and Nina St. in Toronto. If the light turns red after you have already entered the intersection, you won't get a ticket.Jordan Chittley/The Globe and Mail
Smile. You shouldn’t get a red-light-camera ticket if you’re stuck in the intersection waiting to turn left when the light turns red.
“If you entered the intersection on the green light and it turns red while you’re in there, you won’t trigger the red light camera,” said Sean Shapiro, a road safety consultant and former Toronto traffic cop. “They only trigger once you cross the white line after it turns red.”
Even if there’s not a red light camera, you shouldn’t get a ticket as long as you were already in the intersection when it turned amber and then red, Shapiro said.
“It’s not illegal to be in [the intersection] as the light turns,” he said. “It’s illegal to remain there because you now have an obligation to exit, but you still have to exit safely.”
While Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act doesn’t specifically ban blocking an intersection, some municipalities, including Toronto, have bylaws against it. Toronto’s law carries a $450 fine ($500 in community safety zones).
So, once the light is red, you should either finish your turn or, if you can’t, go straight through. And drivers who now have the green light should wait for you, he said.
“It should all happen fairly quickly – but they can’t drive into you," he said, adding that a green light means that you can go only when it’s safe to go. “They can start to move when [you’re gone and] they have somewhere to go.”
While the rules vary by city and province, we didn’t find anywhere in Canada where you could get a ticket for running a red light if the light changes while you’re in the intersection and waiting to turn.
We checked with a few other cities that have red-light cameras. They all said that you’ll only get a red-light-camera ticket if you enter the intersection after the light turns red.
Waiting game?
In Ontario, the law doesn’t say where cars should be when waiting to turn left at a green light. So, while the accepted practice is to move ahead into the intersection to make your turn, you don’t have to – you could wait at the stop line.
But wherever you wait, you should only turn when it’s safe, Shapiro said. If you get hit by another car while turning left, you could get a ticket for making an unsafe turn, regardless of what the other car was doing.
That’s true even if the oncoming car ran an amber or red light or if they were speeding. The other driver might also get a ticket but that won’t excuse your unsafe turn, he said
“It’s not good enough to say, ‘Well, he was speeding and I couldn’t judge his speed,” he said.
“If you are in a situation where you have to hit the gas hard to make a turn [without getting hit]… that was not a good decision.”
Anytime you’re turning left, you also have to watch for pedestrians who may be crossing your path, Shapiro said.
Caught on camera?
Toronto has 283 intersections with red-light cameras. Last year, the city issued 144,425 red light camera tickets. We asked Toronto Police how many tickets for running a red light were issued by officers in 2024 and didn’t get an immediate answer.
In Ontario, a ticket for running a red light comes with a $265 fine, plus $65 in surcharges and court costs.
While red-light tickets handed out by an officer also come with three demerits and go on your driving record, red-light-camera tickets don’t. That’s because the cameras can’t prove who is driving. They’re issued to the registered owner of the car and not to a specific driver.
That means, unlike conventional tickets, your insurance company can’t use photo-enforcement tickets to hike your insurance rates.
Generally, municipalities let you dispute photo radar tickets. In some provinces, including Alberta, you can also choose to plead not guilty and fight the ticket in court.
Also, even if the camera is activated when you go through a red light, you still might not get a ticket.
“All red light violations identified by intersection safety devices are reviewed to ensure they meet the standards required for enforcement,” Jessica Lamarre, director of safe mobility at the City of Edmonton, said in an e-mail. “Roughly half of all violations are not issued tickets due to factors such as image quality, policy restraints or not meeting the threshold of probable grounds needed to issue a ticket.”
In 2024, for example, red-light cameras in Edmonton recorded 58,073 violations and the city issued 31,345 tickets.
So far, red light cameras have largely been spared from the same backlash against speed cameras in Ontario and Alberta.
But Shapiro thinks that all traffic cameras – whether they catch speeders or scofflaws running red lights – are necessary to enforce laws and keep roads safe.
“I actually want to have [enforcement] cameras on every road and every stop sign and every red light,” he said, adding that tickets are easy to avoid. “Just don’t break the law. Then you won’t get a ticket.”
Have a driving question? Send it to globedrive@globeandmail.com and put ‘Driving Concerns’ in your subject line. Emails without the correct subject line may not be answered. Canada’s a big place, so let us know where you are so we can find the answer for your city and province.