2 min read

On January 15th Vision Zero Ottawa and the Lower Town Community Association held a Speed Gun party on King Edward Avenue to draw attention to the speed camera ban which has made our communities less safe for all road users. We cheered drivers respecting the speed limit and the community.

There are 3 schools and a daycare close to the previous speed camera on King Edward Ave. People cross and transit King Edward Ave on foot or by bike daily, many residents of Lower Town don’t own a car. None of the provincial governments proposed traffic calming alternatives like speed bumps or roundabouts are feasible on an arterial road like King Edward, and it’s clear that signs don’t work. But the data is clear – with the speed cameras in place, over 86% percent of drivers were obeying the 40 km/h speed limit on King Edward before the cameras were turned off. Now that the cameras are gone the community is far more vulnerable.

We don’t expect this one protest is going to change driver behaviour. We want the Ford government to know the speed camera ban is going to hurt the Lowertown community, along with hundreds of other affected communities in Ontario. Vehicle crashes are the number one cause of injury-related death for children in Canada – with speeding causing roughly a quarter of overall road deaths across the country in 2021. When it comes to crash severity, every km/h matters. On average, a person struck by a car travelling at 56 km/h was five times more likely to die than a person hit by a car travelling at 32 km/h.

Thank you to the Lower Town Community association, Councillor Stéphanie Plante, and the many others who braved the cold and snow to call on the Ford government to reverse the speed camera ban. Vision Zero Ottawa will continue to hold those who govern our transportation systems at both the municipal and provincial level accountable.

Interested in holding a speed gun party at your former speed camera location? Join the conversation of Vision Zero BetterMode!