(Barrie, ON) – At the September 24 Barrie City Council meeting, Council directed staff to begin phasing out the Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) program. This decision was made ahead of the Province of Ontario’s announcement of upcoming legislation to ban ASE across the province, which if passed, will prevent the use of municipal speed cameras.
Existing cameras in Barrie will remain active for now in Community Safety Zones, and the City will announce an end date for the program once provincial legislation has passed. Outstanding tickets and new tickets issued between now and the end of the program remain valid. Refunds will not be issued. All funds generated from the ASE program are used to fund road safety and traffic calming initiatives.
The City will continue to explore other traffic calming measures, and automated enforcement technology like red light cameras. Red light cameras capture images of vehicles entering an intersection after the traffic signal has turned red.
In 2016, the City studied three busy intersections and found that there were about three red light infractions per day at those intersections. A more recent study now shows between two and seven red light infractions per hour at the city’s busiest intersections. The City is currently collecting data to determine which intersections are best suited for this technology, and where it can have the greatest impact on safety. Staff will report back to City Council before a red light camera program is implemented.
For information on current traffic calming measures in Barrie, visit barrie.ca/TrafficCalming.