Toronto Automated Speed Enforcement (abolished by the province)
Toronto began mailing automated speed enforcement tickets on 6 July 2020 and grew to 150 camera systems in signed, school-area Community Safety Zones; the notice went to the registered owner whoever was driving, and carried no demerit points. A SickKids and Toronto Metropolitan University study found speeding fell 45% at camera sites. Vandals sawed cameras down repeatedly — 16 in a single night in September 2025 — and Ontario's Bill 56 repealed the enabling law, stopping all ticketing on 14 November 2025.
Peer-reviewed evaluation across 204 camera locations (2020-2022): the proportion of vehicles speeding fell 45% (RR 0.55, 95% CI 0.49-0.61) and the 85th-percentile speed by 10.68 km/h. After the cameras were switched off, a City of Toronto report (June 2026) found speeds up at 101 of 104 measured sites, with the share of vehicles travelling 11 km/h or more over the limit rising from 2% to 8.1%.
🎓 Lesson
The threat to a working programme came from two directions at once: a provincial government that called the cameras a tax grab and repealed the statute under them, and residents who cut them down with saws. Neither disputed the measurements.
Evidence🔬 Peer-reviewed
Scale🏙️ City-wide
CostCamera vendor contract target value ≈C$36.2M (2019-2031, terminated early)
FundingCity of Toronto; fine revenue offset programme costs, victim surcharge remitted to the province
Sources
↗ City of Toronto — Automated Speed EnforcementOperator page. 'July 6, 2020: The City began issuing ASE tickets.' 'There were 150 ASE systems installed on local, collector and arterial roads in Community Safety Zones across the city.' 'the registered owner of the vehicle received a violation notice regardless of who was driving'; 'No demerit points were issued by the Ministry of Transportation and driving records were not affected.' 'As of November 14, 2025, Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) penalty orders are no longer issued in accordance with provincial legislation.' Also dates the enabling regulations to 2 December 2019.
↗ Legislative Assembly of Ontario — Bill 56, Building a More Competitive Economy Act, 2025Primary legislation, Royal Assent received, S.O. 2025 c. 11; sponsor Hon. Andrea Khanjin, Minister of Red Tape Reduction. Schedule 5 (Highway Traffic Act): 'Part XIV.1 of the Act is repealed'. Section 206.6: 'no cause of action arises against a municipality ... as a direct or indirect result of the breach, termination or frustration of a contract ... that occurs following the repeal of Part XIV.1.'
↗ Injury Prevention (2025) — Automated speed enforcement reduced vehicle speeds in school zones in TorontoPeer-reviewed, prospective quasi-experimental study by SickKids, University of Toronto, York University, Toronto Metropolitan University and INRS — independent of the city. 'Proportion of vehicles speeding dropped by 45% (RR: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.49, 0.61)' and '85th percentile speed dropped by 10.68 km/hour (95% CI: -11.48, -9.88)'.
↗ City of Toronto — ASE data highlight significant speed reduction impactCity summary of the same SickKids/TMU study: data 'from January 2020 to December 2022 at 204 locations'; 'Excessive speeding ... was also reduced by 87 per cent'; 'the percentage of drivers exceeding the speed limit decreased at 80 per cent of locations'.
↗ Global News — Speeding increases in Toronto significantly after province turns off cameras (24 June 2026)Reports the city staff report: vehicle speeds increased at 101 of 104 locations measured; the proportion travelling 11 km/h or more over the posted limit rose from 2% to 8.1%. Mayor Olivia Chow: 'People are driving like it's a highway; it's a school zone for God's sake.' Province supplied $10 million through the Road Safety Initiative Fund for traffic calming instead.
↗ CP24 — Toronto's Parkside speed camera cut down for 7th time in less than a year (7 Sept 2025)'chopped down for the seventh time in less than a year'; installed 2021 after a speeding driver rear-ended a stopped vehicle, killing a 71-year-old man and his 69-year-old wife; since installation the device 'issued more than 66,000 tickets amounting to more than $8 million in fines'. A CBC report gives 2022 and 68,500 tickets / $7.3M for the same camera — the totals are not reconciled, so they are kept out of the entry text.
↗ Global News — 16 Toronto speed cameras damaged overnight (9 Sept 2025)'16 automated speed enforcement cameras were vandalized overnight', two days after the seventh Parkside cutting. Premier Doug Ford called the devices a 'tax grab' and said the province would remove them if municipalities did not.
↗ City of Toronto Council item 2024.GG18.5 — Redflex contract amendment'Amendment to Blanket Contract Number 47022502 with Redflex Traffic Systems (Canada) Limited for the Provision of Automated Speed Enforcement Cameras'; target value raised to '$36,198,530 net of all applicable taxes and charges'; original term 'from July 16, 2019 to July 15, 2024 with an option to extend the contract for one (1) additional five-year (5) term'. The item does not state whether the vendor is paid per camera, per ticket or by revenue share — no reached source establishes the payment basis.
↗ Global News — Toronto speed camera program revenue (2022)'$34 million in fines was collected' from July 2020 to 31 October 2022. On where it goes: 'The revenue collected (set fines plus costs and fees) offsets the program cost while the victim surcharge is remitted to the province.' Each device costs 'around $50,000 to operate and maintain annually'. No ring-fenced road-safety fund is identified.
📎 Cite this project
1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Toronto Automated Speed Enforcement (abolished by the province)” — Toronto, Canada. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/toronto-automated-speed-enforcement/ (last verified 2026-07-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.
The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.
