Newmarket resident Michelle Meadus got an unpleasant surprise when she checked her mailbox recently.
Living on Bathurst Street, she discovered two speeding tickets dating back to May and June for travelling 63 km/h and 64 km/h in a 50 km/h school zone. A few days later, she said she got another ticket for going 66 km/h.
Meadus got tagged by a York Region automated speeding camera on Bathurst Street, near St. Nicholas Catholic Elementary School. But she said that given most of Bathurst has a 60 or 70 km/h speed limit, and the school is blocked from the street, the tickets seem unfair.
“This is just a cash grab,” he said. “Speeding can be really bad on here, but I’m feeling pretty frustrated because like most people ... (I'm just) driving with the flow of the traffic.”
More automated speed enforcement is arriving in Newmarket this summer and residents can expect to start seeing tickets in their mailboxes. While York Region is expanding a system of rotating speed cameras throughout its nine municipalities, Newmarket is installing 14 different speeding cameras in community safety zones, with all of them expected to be online by the start of the school year.
Meadus said she sees the need for speeding cameras on certain roads, but the cameras are not offering the leeway that there should be.
“It says 60 here (just before the school zone and camera start), so if I pass that box and I was doing 63 km/h per hour, I shouldn’t get an $85 dollar ticket,” she said. “I just feel like it’s very unfair. It’s going put hardships on people who don’t have much money.”
York Region manager of corridor control and incident management John La Chapelle said St. Nicholas does have its property limit backing onto a section of Bathurst, and a controlled pedestrian crosswalk connection, which caused the region to lower the speed limit there for a short section of the road. The camera located there just south of Keith Avenue is scheduled to be relocated later this month, though a fixed one will be placed there at the same location in 2025.
“More than half of fatal collisions on regional roads are related to speeding,” La Chapelle said, adding that speed limits are the law. “There is no maximum number of tickets someone can receive.
La Chapelle said regional data indicated automated speed enforcement reduces speeds by approximately 10 kilometres per hour on average. York Region has 20 fixed cameras installed throughout the municipalities and plans to install another 40 by the end of 2026.
The Town of Newmarket similarly plans to expand automated speed enforcement. That has faced some pushback, with NewmarketToday polling indicating that there is a split of opinions on it.
Here's what speeding in the town’s camera zones could potentially cost you:
- 1 to 19 kilometres per hour over the maximum speed limit, $5 per kilometre
- 20 to 29 kilometres per hour over the maximum speed limit, $7.50 per kilometre
- 30 to 39 kilometres per hour over the maximum speed limit, $12 per kilometre
- 50 kilometres per hour over the maximum speed limit, $19.50 per kilometre
The town has said it is a good way to address speeding in the community, which has been one of the top complaints from the public. Newmarket Mayor John Taylor has repeatedly defended the move.
“I’m going to get calls,” Taylor said in an interview in December 2023. “People will call it a cash grab. The fact is, if you’re speeding in front of a school, I have no sympathy for you. We will move this forward. We will slow traffic down.”
Meadus said the York Region camera is placed oddly, not being on a road with more direct access to the school. She said she would agree more with automated speed enforcement closer to schools.
Regardless, she said the tickets are causing her to either avoid the area entirely or go 50 km/h when approaching the school, even in the zone where faster speeds are allowed. She said it causes many to quickly move and pass her.
“People are flying by me still,” she said. “I just don’t want to take that risk because most people are just driving with the flow of traffic, and to me, driving 62 or 63 is not excessive speed.
“I’m sure I’m not the only one with a bunch of tickets since they put that there,” she added.
