Central Avenue speed camera to be taken out of service at the end of year

A speed camera on Central Avenue near Our Lady of Victory Catholic School will no longer be in operation at the start of 2025.

It has captured images of led-footed motorists during two separate stints this year; for three months starting in January, and again in July until the end of December.

But how many tickets it has been responsible for is information the Niagara Region is not yet prepared to share, says communications consultant Janet Rose.

The next update on automated speed enforcement initiatives will come in early 2025, she told Fort Erie Radio.

In April 2024, staff provided an update to regional council on the early results of the enforcement program across the peninsula.

This included that a total of 15,668 tickets were issued to speeding drivers between September and December 2023 at locations in Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Welland, and West Lincoln, before the camera in Fort Erie was ever installed.

The speed cameras are placed at various spots in the region and then rotated elsewhere after a few months.

Information about fines generated at the Central Avenue shuttering station will be included in the next update to regional council, said Rose.

Rose pointed out that data collected before, during, and after cameras were set up indicated that the average driving speed dropped by 13 per cent, and speeding violations per hour dropped by 67 per cent.

“Speeds remained low even after the cameras were removed,” she added.

When someone is caught speeding by a camera, the amount paid is determined by the set fine, which is determined by the Chief Judge of the Ontario Court of Justice.

This is specific to the rate of speed over the speed limit the vehicle was travelling when the image was taken.

Speed cameras are located in community safety zones, which sets fines at five dollars per km when a driver goes 1 to 19 kms over the maximum speed limit.

The rate moves up to $7.50 per km when moving at 20 to 29 kms above the limit, and to $12 per km when exceeding 30 to 40 kms over the posted limit.

Drivers who are caught also pay a “victim surcharge,” an amount based on the set fine, levied by the province on all provincial offence tickets whether issued by automated enforcement or not, as well as a five dollar court cost.

Demerit points are not issued with violations detected by automated speed enforcement, said Rose.

Regional staff have said on multiple occasions during meetings that fines generated at speed cameras are invested back into road safety initiatives.

Another means of catching traffic violations through the Region’s Vision Zero road safety initiative is the installation of red-light cameras.

One at Garrison Road and Pettit Road/Daytona Drive began enforcement in March 2024.

Information on the number of tickets issued from this piece of equipment will also be shared in an update to regional council early next year, said Rose.

Earlier this year, regional council approved purchasing eight new speed cameras with a total cost of $1.9 million and plans to have all of them in use by 2026.

The next cycle of rotating speed cameras in the region starts in January, and there are no plans for one to function in Fort Erie.

Also during a meeting in the spring, regional staff told council that there are instances where the housing for a camera, the post it is affixed to, may still be standing, but does not have a camera inside once it has been rotated to another spot.

A number of speed cameras in Niagara have been vandalized since they start popping up, including the one on Central Avenue, when it was spray-painted about four months ago.

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