Oshawa to look into installing automated speed cameras sometime after summer’s end

Oshawa will wait until at least the third quarter of 2022 before implementing automated speed cameras to school zones and certain Community Safety Zones in the city to help curb speeding.

Durham has four cameras in use right now – two in Oshawa – but extension of the pilot program would be up to individual municipalities.

Whitby and Ajax have expressed interest in getting involved in the program, as has Oshawa, but a motion on the floor of the Community Services Committee Monday morning to look into the costs was defeated, with Committee instead deciding to wait until the conclusion of Durham’s pilot program this summer.

Currently there are automated speed enforcement cameras at Harmony Road north of Eastbourne Avenue near Vincent Massey Public School and Eastdale Collegiate and Vocational Institute; and on Ritson Road north of Rossland Road, near Beau Valley Public School.

Other cameras in operation are on Altona Road near Elizabeth B. Phin Public School in Pickering and Sandford Road near Sandford Scott Central Public School in Uxbridge.

Cameras will be rotated through an additional 20 community safety zone sites and, as per provincial requirements, ‘Automated Speed Camera Coming Soon’ signs will be installed for 90 days to warn motorists of locations where the cameras will be rotated next.

Those other locations include Adelaide McLaughlin Public School (Stevenson Road, North) and Ontario Tech University/Durham College, Queen Elizabeth Public School, Blaisdale Montessori and Dr. SJ Phillips Public School – all on Simcoe Street North.

Most committee members believed the motion was “well intentioned but premature” with the ultimate agreement to wait until the regional pilot program was complete.

Nevertheless, the debate got chippy, with a simple motion to send the matter back to staff defeated, followed by a challenge to the chair raised over one councillor not being able to speak on the matter, which was defeated on a 3-3 vote.

In the end Committee chose to receive the report “for information,” with even that vote up for contention, passing 4-2.

The initiative is in support of Durham Vision Zero, a long-term plan to ensure a safe transportation system that sees no lives lost or serious injuries on Durham’s roadways.