Ottawa drivers are putting the pedal down again once a photo radar camera disappears from their street. New data released by the city shows that average speeds at former camera locations have crept up by 7 to 13 km/h after the devices were relocated elsewhere, a jump that safety advocates say undercuts the whole point of the program.
Why the numbers matter
Ottawa's automated speed enforcement program was built around the idea that cameras change driver behaviour over the long term, not just in the weeks a device sits at a given corner. The city rotates its cameras through a rotating list of locations, mostly school zones and community safety zones, on the assumption that drivers stay cautious even after the camera moves on. The new figures suggest the opposite is happening in many spots: once the camera is gone, speeds climb back toward where they were before enforcement started, and in some cases higher.
For a city that has leaned hard on photo radar as a core piece of its Vision Zero road safety strategy, that is a meaningful problem. Vision Zero aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on Ottawa streets, and speed reduction is the single biggest lever the city has to get there. If the deterrent effect fades as soon as a camera leaves, it raises questions about whether the current rotation model is actually delivering lasting safety gains or just shuffling risk from one neighbourhood to the next.
What it means for Ottawa neighbourhoods
The rebound in speeds is especially relevant for residents near school zones and community safety zones, the two categories of streets where Ottawa concentrates its camera deployments. Parents and community associations have pushed for years to get cameras installed on residential streets with a history of speeding complaints, often citing near-misses involving kids walking or biking to school. If speeds climb back up within months of a camera's departure, those same streets could be back to square one, just without the enforcement that got speeds down in the first place.
This also feeds into an ongoing conversation at Ottawa City Hall about whether the photo radar program needs more permanent camera placements rather than the current rotating model, and whether the city should be investing in physical traffic calming, like speed bumps, narrowed lanes, or raised crosswalks, alongside enforcement rather than relying on cameras alone. Some councillors have already flagged permanent, fixed cameras as a cheaper long-term option than continuously trucking devices between dozens of sites across the city.
What happens next
Expect this data to factor into upcoming budget and transportation committee discussions at Ottawa City Hall, where councillors have previously debated expanding the camera network and reviewing how sites are chosen. Residents who want to see traffic calming measures on their street, rather than relying solely on a camera that may eventually move on, can raise the issue with their ward councillor or through the city's traffic calming request process.
Source: CTV News
