On Dec. 1, the city expects to have 50 photo radar cameras across Toronto electronically catching speeders near schools and other places where pedestrians and cyclists are at high risk.

A report going to a city committee Thursday says that as well as making Toronto’s deadly streets safer, “automated speed enforcement” will, assuming the Ontario government makes required regulatory changes, net the city about $11 million a year in revenue.

The plan is to have two of the cameras snapping away in each of Toronto’s 25 wards, with locations determined by data and safety research.

Article Continued Below

Transportation staff are recommending preparing Toronto drivers for the change — where a camera registers speed, records the licence plate, and the vehicle owner gets a ticket in the mail — with a prior period where speeders will receive only a warning.

Costs of running the system will be shared, the plan says, with other Ontario municipalities also looking at introducing photo radar.

Last September to December, Toronto put photo radar near eight schools across the city and later analyzed data that suggested rampant speeding, in some cases qualifying for the provincial definition of stunt driving even if it was done on 400-series highways.

Read more:

Article Continued Below

John Tory pledges to lower speed limits, push for photo radar

Click to expand

Female pedestrian dead after being hit by driver of heavy truck in downtown core

Torontonians want lower speed limits, photo radar, and more bike lanes, poll suggests

Toronto appears to have hit a one-year high in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities. Over 40 per cent of those deaths happened in Scarborough

A zone on Avenue Rd. saw a weekly average of 60,100 motorists going more than 10 km/h over the 40 km/h limit, with one driver hitting 110 km/h. A 40 km/h Renforth Dr. zone in Etobicoke saw fewer speeders, 25,511 per week on average, but one hit a whopping 202 km/h — more than five times the limit.

Mayor John Tory has repeatedly called on the provincial government — first the Liberal one headed by Kathleen Wynne, and then the Progressive Conservative one headed by Doug Ford — to proclaim into force the 2017 Safer School Zones act and pass regulations allowing municipalities to issue tickets with photo radar.

Since the act was passed, concerns over killer drivers have risen along with the deaths of pedestrians and cyclists on city streets.

As of Wednesday afternoon, 16 pedestrians had died on Toronto streets, including a woman killed that morning downtown, according to a Star tally which, unlike police counts, includes fatalities on private property and 400-series highways. Last year an apparent record 42 pedestrians and five cyclists were killed.

Last week Tory repeated the call for photo radar, along with lower speed limits on specific streets across Toronto, as part of a reboot of the city’s “Vision Zero” plan that aims to eliminate such deaths.

The new photo radar report says the city is working with provincial officials and expects to have new rules in place to launch the program Dec. 1.

City staff want council to authorize them to operate a processing centre and share costs with one or more of: Mississauga; Brampton; Burlington; Hamilton; Ottawa; London, Peel, Durham and Waterloo regions; the town of Ajax; and Oxford County.

The report predicts when fully implemented Toronto revenues will total just over $23 million a year, for a net benefit to the treasury of just over $11 million.

While speeders won’t be happy, a survey released in early March found overwhelming support among Torontonians for photo radar to discourage leadfoots.