Parkside Drive speed camera damaged for third time in Toronto, safety advocate says it will happen again – NOW Toronto

A speed camera on Parkside Drive has been vandalized for a third time, and a community leader believes it won’t be the last. 

The camera, located near Parkside Drive and Algonquin Avenue, is believed to have been cut down in the early morning hours on Sunday. Photos of the camera have been circulating on social media, which show the damaged device floating in a duck pond at High Park. 

The parking camera was installed following the death of two seniors involved in a fatal multiple vehicle crash around Parkside Drive and Spring Road in October 2021. Since its installation, the City of Toronto has issued more than 65,000 speeding tickets, totalling an estimated value of $7 million in fines. 

But the camera has also fallen victim to vandalization multiple times, with two prior occurrences earlier this year in November. 

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Over the past few years, the city introduced speeding limit reductions to go alongside the addition of the Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) on the street, but Safe Parkside spokesperson and co-chair Faraz Gholizadeh says he doesn’t believe the changes are enough to make the roads safe. 

“It’s had a little bit of effect on motor speeds,” Gholizadeh said to Now Toronto on Monday. 

“The speed camera is only on one small section of this two-kilometre long street, so motorists are now aware of where it is. They simply speed down most of the street, slow down when they reach the camera and then speed up again. And this sort of behaviour is not what we were looking for when we were advocating for safety.”

Gholizadeh says Safe Parkside is advocating for a Complete Street redesign of Parkside Drive, a term that describes creating welcoming and safe streets for all users of the roads, including motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. 

“Unfortunately, Parkside is designed like a mini highway running through a neighbourhood running right beside a park, and it’s dominated by speeding cars… the sidewalk doesn’t even meet the city’s minimum width for a sidewalk, and there’s no consideration for cyclists,” he said. 

Gholizadeh also says he’s sure that the city will replace the camera once again, and wouldn’t be surprised if it gets vandalized for a fourth time, especially due to the city’s lack of effort in enforcing consequences to the individual who has been taking it down.  

“I imagine they have no reason to feel that they shouldn’t do this again. You would hope that moral compass would prevent them from doing it. But you know, some people don’t agree that this street should be made safe, and it’s unfortunate because people have died on the street,” Gholizadeh said. 

“People have been seriously injured on the street, and I don’t understand how a street could be a community safety zone according to the city, and yet be designed the way they designed it with no safety consideration.”

THE CITY OF TORONTO’S RESPONSE

In response to the camera being destroyed, the city has said that it condemns all acts of theft and vandalism. 

“Tampering with, damaging or stealing an Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) device negatively impacts road safety and allows dangerous speeding to continue near vulnerable road users,” City of Toronto representative Deborah Blackstone said in an email statement on Monday. 

The city insists that it does not own any of the ASE devices, as they are a vendor-provided service, and it is the vendor’s responsibility to replace or fix the devices within a maximum of 30 days and report serious incidents of vandalism to Toronto Police Services. 

To combat the damages to the speed cameras, the city says it is also exploring other solutions including pole mounted options and remote monitoring that may help alleviate some of the vandalism issues.