New Rules Help Municipalities Fight Speeding in School and Community Safety Zones
Ontario passed legislation today to protect the most vulnerable users of local roads, including children, seniors, pedestrians and cyclists.
The Safer School Zones Act gives municipalities more tools to fight speeding and dangerous driving in their communities, including:
- Automated speed enforcement (ASE) technology, which will help catch speeders. Municipalities will have the option to use this technology in school zones and also in community safety zones on roads with speed limits below 80 km/h.
- The ability to create zones with reduced speed limits to decrease the frequency and severity of pedestrian-vehicle collisions in urban areas.
- A streamlined process for municipalities to participate in Ontario’s effective Red Light Camera program without the need for lengthy regulatory approval.
Municipalities, police boards and road safety advocates from across Ontario have asked for these tools to help keep roads safe, particularly in areas with children and seniors. With the passage of this new legislation, municipalities will now have the option to implement road safety measures in a way that makes sense in their local communities.
Ontario’s roads have consistently ranked among the safest in North America, and these new tools will help make communities even safer for all vulnerable road users.
Quick Facts
- ASE is already used in many parts of North America and Europe. It will not be implemented on provincial highways.
- Speed is one of the biggest killers on Ontario’s roads: 14 per cent of all people killed on Ontario’s roads in 2013 died in collisions where speed was a factor.
- In 2013, approximately 3 out of every 4 speed-related collisions occurred on municipal roads.
- Studies show that the use of automated speed enforcement leads to fewer fatalities and serious collisions.
Photo from: www.yorkregion.com
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