GUELPH – Drivers passing through Fergus are placing pressure on residential streets in an attempt to avoid county speed cameras.
At a June 26 Wellington County council meeting, councillor Shawn Watters, who is mayor of Centre Wellington, shared residents’ concerns about an increase of residential traffic near the Belsyde Avenue automated speed enforcement (ASE) camera site in Fergus.
“We’ve noticed it’s putting a lot of pressure on the adjacent streets, and it’s not necessarily reducing speed,” said Watters.
“People are using those as cut-throughs so they don’t have to go by the camera.”
He added traffic is also putting “pressure on the locals to deal with speeding … that’s a result of these cameras.”
Residents have shared concerns related to the increased traffic on streets and newfound issues exiting their driveways.
“We’re actually seeing the same issue in the Drayton location with vehicles … taking an alternative route,” stated councillor Gregg Davidson.
Councillor Matthew Bulmer reassured Watters, noting the Belsyde Avenue issue has been discussed at a police board meeting, and with interim Wellington County OPP detachment commander Karen Medeiros.
“She made it quite clear that either the local municipality or county council can make the request of our OPP detachment, and they will deploy [officers] to start monitoring on behalf of the local residents,” Bulmer explained.
“And to determine if there’s a need for enhanced enforcement on these so called … drive-arounds.”
He added, “I don’t want anybody to leave this room with the impression that those concerns are not being heard.”
Councillor Diane Ballantyne agreed with Watters and said she hopes the township, in cooperation with the county, can work on traffic measures for nearby interior residential streets.
Although the Belsyde Avenue location is causing some upset, Ballantyne stated it was “worthwhile” to note the positive percentages.
The speeding statistics reported “show that eastbound on Belsyde [states] 80% of the cars were in the 85th percentile of speeding,” she explained.
The 85th percentile speed is an industry-wide standard that traffic engineers use to determine the speed at which most drivers will operate their vehicle because they perceive it to be safe for the road environment.
“They are now down to 29% post enforcement,” Ballantyne said.
“So regardless of whether we know how many cars are actually going down the street, we know that what we are capturing has dramatically reduced.”
Overall, the data from the five locations indicates an average reduction of the 85th percentile speed by approximately 19%.
According to Ballantyne, less than 3% of the travellers on any of the roads are receiving a ticket.
“And we know the statistics are 60% are people outside of Wellington County, which means the actual [percentage] of Wellington County residents receiving a ticket is less than 1.5%,” she said.
The discussion was an extension from an updated ASE Ministry of Transportation (MTO) preliminary reporting report.
Updated speed camera data
The report is part of the ASE administrative penalty agreement with MTO, which requires the collection of data to monitor safety effectiveness.
“Municipalities must provide MTO with semi-annual reports no later than six months after the reporting period of Jan. 1 to June 30 and July 1 to Dec. 31,” states the report.
The data presented to council summarizes preliminary results for the period of Jan. 15 to May 31.
The county’s ASE one-year pilot program began on Jan. 15 and has been raking in money ever since.
“To date the county share of revenue is approximately $3.3 million and the prediction we have … is somewhere between seven and nine million by the end of the year,” Davidson told council.
From the five online camera locations, compliance with the posted speed limit has “greatly increased, with 62 per cent of vehicles now travelling at or below the speed limit,” he continued.
A total of 3.92 million vehicles have travelled through the ASE zones during the reporting period, with just over 221,000 images recorded for exceeding the threshold set by council.
“Out of the 221,000 images taken, 115,000 (52%) resulted in a penalty order issued,” Davidson said.
“When we started down this road … and endorsed this pilot program, it was because we had received so many complaints from local residents. They demanded we do something different, something more.”
When the ASE discussion began, at “no time” did councillors speak about revenue, Davidson insisted.
“What we discussed was safety measures and compliance with the speed limits that we set here on our roadways,” Davidson said.
“These initial results are a great promise … that we’re achieving our results.”
