News   Apr 15, 2024
An Aerial Tour of Construction at The Residences at Central Park
 893     0 
News   Apr 15, 2024
Proposal Across from St James Park Grows to 65 Storeys
 2K     5 
News   Apr 15, 2024
News Roundup for April 15, 2024
 641     0 

Traffic Enforcement/Policing

G

georgevicbell

Active Member
Member Bio
Joined
Oct 31, 2012
Messages
234
Reaction score
56
I have noticed a trend over last few years of increased calls for enforcement (including in John Tory's State of the City press conference last week) but not seeing much improvement.

There was discussion at the beginning of the year of a decrease (30%) in the number of tickets being written by the TPS:
http://humbernews.ca/ticketed-driving-offences-decreased-in-toronto-in-2013/

How much sway does the Mayor actually have in calling for increased enforcement of traffic laws? Is there any recourse for them not improving their numbers? Is it time to separate the traffic enforcement from TPS? Is there room for automated systems - camera's? Should we deputize tow truck drivers? Should we deputize bus drivers or TTC employees?

Is there any more data out there about how much time police are spending doing traffic enforcement, how much money they are bringing in? How much we are paying to do it? Is it enough? Could we save the TTC money if they paid for increased enforcement?
 
georgevicbell said:
How much sway does the Mayor actually have in calling for increased enforcement of traffic laws?
Click to expand...

Near zero. Ultimately, the police force is a self-governing entity which decides how to distribute their manpower themselves (otherwise Ford would have ordered his investigation downsized). Council can make laws but they can't force the police to focus on it.

The province, however, can give direction like this or make it cheaper to enforce through some of the means you describe. There are cities where tow truck drivers can tow/ticket without police; they tended to get into a lot of court battles in the past but now it's standard to photograph the scene (including timestamp) before towing.
 
rbt said:
Not very effectively. Miller tried with regard to transit lane (King, Don Mills) ticketing.
Click to expand...
I saw ticketing on Don Mills (and Eglinton) when I used to take the 25, back when Miller was Mayor - haven't used it much since 2010. I also saw it that most drivers respected it, and the bus moved well.

Since 2010 I've been near King - and not once have I seen TPS ticketing. Nor is the lane respected.
 
nfitz said:
I saw ticketing on Don Mills (and Eglinton) when I used to take the 25, back when Miller was Mayor - haven't used it much since 2010. I also saw it that most drivers respected it, and the bus moved well.

Since 2010 I've been near King - and not once have I seen TPS ticketing. Nor is the lane respected.
Click to expand...

Police were sitting on King on either side of Bay and ticketing cars today. I don't know what they were enforcing (perhaps illegal right turns at King & Bay?) but I saw three drivers ticketed in the span of less than 10 minutes.
 
AlbertHWagstaff said:
Police were sitting on King on either side of Bay and ticketing cars today. I don't know what they were enforcing (perhaps illegal right turns at King & Bay?) but I saw three drivers ticketed in the span of less than 10 minutes.
Click to expand...
... and I didn't even know the Chief of Police golfed ...
 
rbt said:
Near zero. Ultimately, the police force is a self-governing entity which decides how to distribute their manpower themselves (otherwise Ford would have ordered his investigation downsized). Council can make laws but they can't force the police to focus on it.

The province, however, can give direction like this or make it cheaper to enforce through some of the means you describe. There are cities where tow truck drivers can tow/ticket without police; they tended to get into a lot of court battles in the past but now it's standard to photograph the scene (including timestamp) before towing.
Click to expand...

What about the transit police, there was a thing a while back about them being un-deputized due to corruption...something about writing tickets to people who were already in jail and then going golfing for the day...I think they were re-deputized after a new leader was hired...are they controlled by TTC, or just paid by them? Can they only do their job on TTC property (hence not being able to help on the street?)...

Transit should not be held up by "work to rule" issues as a negotiating tactic...maybe moving to a separate traffic/transit enforcement group would be a better way of organizing them, it may also be cheaper in the long run as you have a dedicated and systematic way of enforcing specific high priority areas...along with a specific group of people who are properly insentivised, organized and equipped to do the job (cameras, trucks that can tow, towing to green-p lots close to the area rather than towing to lots across the city)...
 
georgevicbell said:
What about the transit police, there was a thing a while back about them being un-deputized due to corruption...something about writing tickets to people who were already in jail and then going golfing for the day...I think they were re-deputized after a new leader was hired...are they controlled by TTC, or just paid by them? Can they only do their job on TTC property (hence not being able to help on the street?).
Click to expand...

I dug up and posted the text of the rules they follow a few weeks back in one thread or another ("View Latest Posts" seems to be broken). From what I recall, they have authority on TTC property (that would include the bus/streetcar) and may pursue a suspect to Toronto borders.
 
Last edited:
These a common sense policies that should have been implemented a long time ago. Good on Tory for being on board. That said, this is more symbolic than anything. It won't do much to reduce congestion. I'd be surprised if it results in a notable reduction in commute times. The only way to significantly reduce congestion is to get people out of their cars.
 
Unfortunately in Toronto (or in Ontario?) the Parking Control Officers need to physically attach the parking violation notice to the vehicle so a driver can just drive off fast and avoid parking tickets. In other places when this happens the notice is simply mailed and (I think) driver pays a higher fee. It is also unfortunate that the Parking Officers cannot deal with 'moving offences' so cannot ticket for not stopping at Stop signs, running red lights or ??? The 'real' police seem to have little time for traffic offences (I saw one in a parked car yesterday totally ignore a driver going wrong way on a one-way street) so maybe the role of the parking folk needs to be expanded.
 
We need these:

Traffic-Cop.jpg
 

Attachments

  • Traffic-Cop.jpg
    Traffic-Cop.jpg
    146.3 KB · Views: 721
TheTigerMaster said:
These a common sense policies that should have been implemented a long time ago. Good on Tory for being on board. That said, this is more symbolic than anything. It won't do much to reduce congestion. I'd be surprised if it results in a notable reduction in commute times. The only way to significantly reduce congestion is to get people out of their cars.
Click to expand...

Reducing congestion big picture, no of course it won't, but that doesn't mean we should allow one delivery truck to block half of a major road illegally.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top