As of Jan. 28, the TTC will be officially activating external-facing cameras on streetcars, buses and Wheel-Trans vehicles, a move many city councillors and Torontonians have been seeking for years.

In a press release, the TTC said the cameras will help the transit agency investigate incidents involving TTC vehicles, support the investigation of customer complaints, and enhance user safety.

“Toronto is one of the last municipalities in Ontario to implement forward-facing and external cameras on surface vehicles, and this has been a long-standing gap in our incident investigations model,” the agency said.

The move comes after a public consultation meeting and online survey held in October. According to the TTC, the latter showed that 86 per cent of respondents supported the proposal for external-facing cameras while 8 per cent did not. Six per cent of respondents were unsure.

The data and video footage will be retained for 72 hours on buses and streetcars, and seven days for most Wheel-Trans vehicles. “The video footage on the vehicles that is not downloaded will be overwritten on a rolling basis (similar to internal camera footage on vehicles),” the agency said.

According to graphics released by the TTC, six external-facing cameras are planned for buses and three for Wheel-Trans vehicles. Existing plans only show a single external camera at the front of streetcars.

Have your say

On Monday, Councillor Mike Layton (University—Rosedale) told the Star he welcomed the latest development, but added it may have been a “missed opportunity” as the new cameras will not focus on catching drivers who blow past open streetcar doors, something he has called for.

He said there were “probably additional challenges” around adding cameras to monitor people who run past doorways, but “maybe that’s something we should be investing in.”

“If you’ve ever taken a streetcar in Toronto, you know there’s always a little anxiety when you’re opening doors into the traffic lane and you (have to) look back and make sure that the person’s not going to start to run the doors,” he said.