Majority of drivers caught by photo radar camera on King Edward Avenue are from Quebec, councillor says

A new photo radar camera has been installed on King Edward Avenue at Bruyere Street. The camera issued 7,500 speeding tickets in its first month of operation. (Dave Charbonneau/CTV News Ottawa)

More than half of the drivers caught speeding by the new photo radar camera on Ottawa's King Edward Avenue are from Quebec.

The automated speed enforcement camera on the southbound lanes of King Edward Avenue, between Cathcart Street and St. Patrick Street, issued 10,592 speeding tickets in June, and has issued 28,742 speeding tickets in its first four months of operation.

Coun. Tim Tierney, who is chair of the city's transportation committee, says 51 per cent of the speeding tickets issued by the camera on King Edward Avenue in June were to drivers with out-of-province licence plates.

"Fifty-one per cent is quote, unquote out-of-province, that's Quebec tickets. We do have a reciprocal agreement, so they're paying the freight on whatever tickets they get driving into Ontario," Tierney told Newstalk 580 CFRA's The Morning Rush on Monday.

"Anyone that's driven into Quebec, and they do have cameras as well, and received a ticket and you rumble about it, well now it goes both ways."

Data available on the City of Ottawa's website shows the average speed recorded by the photo radar camera on King Edward Avenue was 36 km/h in March, 35 km/h in April and 34 km/h in May. In May, the 85^th percentile speed (the speed at which 85 per cent of traffic is travelling or below) was 43 km/h, according to the data.

"Everyone wants to be safe. It's not a suggestion on the sign, it is what the law says and if you're speeding be thankful that it's a financial penalty as a good warning and not points, because that has much larger ramifications," Tierney said.

Tierney says of the 39,361 speeding tickets issued by Ottawa's 40 photo radar cameras in June, 22 per cent of the tickets were issued to out-of-province drivers.

In 2018, the city of Ottawa reached an agreement with the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, giving the city access to records and information of Quebec drivers and allowing the city to issue camera-related tickets.

While some people have raised concerns about a lack of signs promoting the speed on the roads near cameras, Tierney notes all cameras have signs.

"We do kind of put a big sign that says, 'Camera Ahead.' Unless we put it in blinking neon, there's nothing really we can do about it – it becomes more of a challenge," Tierney said, adding the Ontario government mandates the signage around automated speed enforcement cameras.