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Toronto has canceled an automated traffic enforcement pilot project to help combat congestion following the provincial government's ban on the use of speed cameras in Ontario, CBC Toronto has learned.
Cameras for the pilot project were to be installed this summer to collect data on drivers “boxing” at intersections and driving in dedicated bus lanes. The tickets were not expected to be issued until next year, in part because enforcing traffic rules in this way requires provincial approval.
But the cameras were never installed, and now the pilot has been fired.
“Recent provincial legislation prohibiting the use of automatic speed cameras has shown that other enforcement tactics will be preferable to automated ones,” said city spokeswoman Kate Lear.
CBC Toronto explored how this kind of automated enforcement can help resolve the impasse in a three-part series. Stuck: way out earlier this year. At the time, Seattle was the only city in North America that issued tickets for blocking booths and driving in bus lanes using an automated enforcement program—and driver behavior there seemed to be changing.
“It means taking out a tool from the toolbox that works,” Matti Siemiatycki, director of the University of Toronto's Infrastructure Institute, said of scrapping the automated enforcement pilot.
“So people will continue to experience the same traffic jams that they have, the same traffic jams and the same frustration.”
The move comes after Premier Doug Ford's government passed legislation in late October banning the use of speed cameras in Ontario. It also comes a year after the city approved a congestion management plan that included automatic enforcement of the rules.
CBC Toronto asked the province if it would ever allow the city to issue fines through automated enforcement for such traffic violations.
In a statement, the Office of the Minister of Transportation said it had not received a proposal from the city and therefore the province is not considering further use of automated enforcement beyond what is already included in the Highway Traffic Act.
Only 9% of repeat offenders in Seattle “locked the box”
Toronto's traffic director said in January that the city hoped to use methods and technology available in Seattle.
From the launch of Seattle's automated enforcement program in 2022 through the end of 2024, only up to nine percent of vehicle owners who were issued a citation for blocking a box later received a citation for doing so again.
“Automated enforcement works… People get an initial ticket, then they learn and don't do it again,” Siemiatycki said of the Seattle program.
“If we don't use one of the tools that has worked in other regions, we are really falling behind in an area where we need to be leaders.”
Seattle's recidivism rate was higher when driving in the bus lane, at 45 percent.
In a statement, the City of Toronto said the first phase of the automated enforcement pilot program collected valuable information from applicant companies, and the city remains committed to exploring how other advanced technologies can help address congestion.
In February, the Toronto Board of Trade also released a congestion action plan that recommended implementing automated enforcement so cameras could catch drivers blocking intersections, double parking and stopping in bike lanes and bus stops.
The council's plan called for legislative changes to the Highway Traffic Act so the city could move to automated enforcement.
“We are disappointed,” Giles Gerson, president of the Toronto Region Board of Trade, said Friday.
“It was a fundamental part [of our action plan]. It is clear that automatic regulation of traffic violations will make a significant contribution to reducing congestion.”
What now?
Now, it looks like the city will have to try to deter drivers the old-fashioned way: with boots on the ground.
Traffic police officers at busy intersections do not allow vehicles to block the boxes where they can, and police officers personally issue warnings and fines when they appear.
Last fall, tickets for blocking a booth at most intersections went up from $90 to $450, and the city budget for this year included $3 million to quadruple the number of traffic police officers on the streets to 100.
Toronto police issued 1,352 lockbox tickets in 2024, totaling more than $40,000 in fines, according to data obtained through a freedom of information request. That's more tickets for blocking intersections than were issued in the previous five years combined.
Urban planning expert Siemiatycki says if automated enforcement isn't on the table, new tools are needed.
“How are we actually going to solve these problems?” – he said. “We need another set of solutions, and they need to be clear and evidence-based.”
