According to Ontario’s auditor general, Ottawa police have been handing out more traffic tickets than any other provincial municipality over the past ten years. In fact, the number of tickets issued in the capital city has increased very dramatically, and what is more worrying for some watchdogs is that this increase comes at the same time that traffic revenues were transferred to the city.

The recently-released auditor general’s annual report cites theses facts as a potential conflict. Ottawa was allowed to keep the revenue from tickets in 2001. Between 1999 and 2007, the number of traffic tickets written up by Ottawa Police jumped 155%. No other area of the province has seen such a jump, leading to the obvious question: are the tickets just a money grab by Ottawa?

York has also seen an increase in traffic tickets, but only by 95%. Toronto has seen an increase of 78% in terms of tickets being written up. Other cities in Ontario are seeing increases of 50% or less. The huge jump in Ottawa certainly seems conspicuous. The auditor general, Jim McCarter, has been asking whether the traffic practices might be influenced by the desire to promote revenues in the city. However, he was not able to find a firm answer so he raised the issue with Ontario’s attorney general.

Ottawa police have their own explanations for the sudden spike in tickets. Police spokesperson Staff Sgt. Rock Lavigne notes that in 2002, the police targeted unsafe driving and speeding as top issues and as a result hired 18 officers for the city’s traffic enforcement and escort unit. The 42-member-strong-team can better catch aggressive drivers and speeding drivers, Lavigne notes. The fact that tickets increased by a third within the first year the new officers were hired does seem to suggest the extra officers may have played a role in the ticket increases. Lavigne also says that the city’s growth in 2001 may explain the extra tickets. In that year, the Ottawa police expanded their jurisdiction, which now includes Rideau, Osgoode, Goulbourn, Kanata, West Carleton, Cumberland, and Rockcliffe Park

Still, watchdogs find it hard to ignore that the money from tickets does into Ottawa’s general revenue coffers (once a small fraction of the proceeds are granted to the province). Ottawa’s police services board rejects that idea that there is anything underhanded or self-serving in the writing of tickets. According to West Carleton-March Councillor Eli El-Chantiry, who also served on the city’s police services board, Ottawa is simply proving more effective and innovative in clamping down on speeding.

There was a lot of action this year in Ontario’s traffic news and in celebration of year’s end, we thought it might be a good idea to recap major events. If you’ve missed any of the stories and they interest you, this is your chance to get caught up. Just follow the link to read the full news coverage.

January 20, 2008: New Ontario Holiday, a Legal Loophole? Speeders and other traffic violators had the opportunity to exploit Dalton McGuinty’s hasty new ‘Family Day’ holiday.

February 29, 2008: Should Winter Tires be the Law? Ontario was contemplating following Quebec’s lead in passing legislation for mandatory winter tire use. So far this law has not been passed in Ontario but it’s interesting to note that the Quebec winter tire law has caused a shortage of winter tires for the rest of Canada!

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Montreal artist Michel de Broin was making a blatant statement about consumption when he transformed a luxury Buick Regal into a bicycle. But P.C. Derek Walsh didn’t appreciate the message when he spotted the strange looking car going 15 km/h on Toronto streets.

Walsh immediately pulled the Buick over, looked inside and saw that there was no floor, no engine and used candles for headlights. Caught in a YouTube video, the police officer looks in the vehicle, shakes his head and says, “Not even close to being legal.” He writes up a traffic ticket for operating an unsafe vehicle, seizes the car and leaves the artistic passengers stranded, wondering what to tell the Art Gallery.

Here is the YouTube video for your viewing pleasure:

Toronto Police Ticket Flinstone Car Art

As CityNews reported, Dean Baldwin, the driver of the ‘Flintstone Motor Art’, parked the Buick in front of Toronto’s traffic court ready to fight the traffic ticket. The traffic court judge threw out the case claiming that the modified Buick was no longer a vehicle and therefore the charge was inapplicable.

So as you can see through this example, with the proper defense, you can fight any traffic ticket and win. If you’d like the reassurance of having a professional handle your case, get Legal Action today!

It sounds like a board game but the city isn’t paying games. They are very serious in their new initiative of putting pedestrians before drivers and have proven it by implementing an experiment called the, “pedestrian scramble”.

On August 28^th, reports the globeandmail.com, one of the busiest intersections of Toronto, Yonge and Dundas, turned into a free-for-all-pedestrians. The traffic light configuration stops all vehicles in every direction to allow pedestrians to cross the street in any direction they please, including diagonally.

Drivers will have to wait up to almost a minute before they are allowed to proceed, where as before the longest wait time was 30 seconds. Green lights for drivers have been reduced by almost 10 seconds to allow more crossing time for pedestrians.

Other cities, like Montreal, Tokyo, San Fransisco and Miami, have already implemented the ‘pedestrian scramble’ as far back as the 1950s. These pedestrian scrambles have been widely accepted and have had pedestrians dancing in the streets. By the way, here in Toronto we call it ‘pedestrian priority phase,’ as the term, ‘scramble’ immediately brings to mind disorderly conduct.

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In last week’s post, we reported how the Provincial authorities claim the roads have been made safer through the one-year-old street-racing legislation. But critics say this is only one of many factors affecting the lower incidence of traffic fatalities. High gas prices are a likely suspect, and one American study seems to verify this idea.

The Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan reported recent results from their study, which covers 12 month ending in April, and found that as gas prices rose, driving and fatalities declined. They predict that if the same pattern continues for the rest of the year, Americans will be driving on roads that haven’t been this safe since Kennedy moved into the White House.

From the wheels section of The Star:

Sivak, who used data from the National Safety Council, National Center for Health Statistics and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration…predicts that highway deaths this year will drop below 37,000 for the first time since 1961 if the March and April trends continue. The government motor vehicle death count for 1961 totaled 36,285. The number of highway deaths peaked in 1972 at 55,600, then generally declined over the next two decades. For the past several years, the number has hovered above 42,000 a year.

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As the Toronto Sun reported last week, the number of traffic fatalities dropped 30% from last year. Fantino is crediting Ontario’s restrictive new street-racing legislation passed earlier this year. OPP Sgt. Cam Wooley concurs, saying something must be working as this has been the first time in his 30 years that he’s seen a decrease this significant.

Unfortunately, the same article reports that a 27-year-old was caught speeding in a V-8 Aston Martin Vantage going 218 km/h on Hwy 407. This extraordinary incidence, along with others caught speeding 50 km and over, is interfering in Fantino’s goal of 0 fatalities, “It certainly does not have to be at the number it is at…I don’t call them accidents anymore. They are caused occurrences.”

From the torontosun.com:

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The major news story in Toronto last week was the devastating explosions and fire at the Sunrise Propane Energy site by the Keele and Finch area. The disaster saw thousands of residents evacuate the area and caused serious damage to nearby homes and businesses. As residents begin to return home, and the authorities are investigating the cause of the blasts, lawsuits are also getting underway, taking aim at both Sunrise Propane and the Province of Ontario. From CTV:

Two Toronto law firms say they’ll file papers on Wednesday to start a $300 million class-action lawsuit on behalf of business owners and residents affected by this weekend’s propane blasts.

The City of Toronto and Sunrise Propane Energey Group Inc., the site of Sunday’s massive explosions, will be named on a notice of action, according to the website classproceedings.ca

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Ontario Transportation Minister Jim Bradley has recently hinted at new legislation coming this fall that would crackdown on the use of personal electronic devices while driving. From the Toronto Star:

The new law could range from an outright ban on use of electronics while driving to measures to toughen Ontario’s existing laws. Currently, a driver convicted of driving “without due care and attention” can face fines of up to $1,000 and a prison term of up to six months.

The idea behind the “distracted driver” legislation is to reduce potentially deadly traffic accidents in a fast-moving environment where multi-tasking can be dangerous.

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Over the last six months, Toronto police have arrested nearly 500 people in the downtown area for outstanding criminal warrants, the CTV reports.

“A total of 850 criminal charges have been laid on 477 people taken into custody. The move was part of a six-month project in 51 Division titled “Round Up.”

Police say the majority of the people arrested were facing charges of violence, property damage, gun possession and drug trafficking in the downtown core. Authorities were able to make the arrests because of the tips received from the community.

Project Round Up will continue until the end of the year but police are urging the public to turn in people who have outstanding warrants”.

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As the National Post reported last month, the federal government has finally set a new law in motion that will take aim at drivers on drugs, in an effort to curb impaired drivers under multiple substances. From the article:

OTTAWA – Drivers who get behind the wheel while high on drugs will face roadside testing and they could be ordered to surrender urine, blood or saliva samples at the police station under a controversial new law that takes effect one week from today.

Drivers who refuse to comply will be subject to a minimum $1,000 fine — the same penalty for refusing the breathalyzer.

The new measures, which grant police more power to administer drug tests, comes after Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) and other groups advocated for changes in Canada’s Criminal Code.

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