Photo radar in Ottawa: Pros and cons debated on social media

Ottawa's mayor doesn't believe the city needs photo radar and one community group agrees, but other stakeholders such as Safe Streets Ottawa support the idea.

Photo radar, which is already used at some intersections to catch those who run red lights, was recently introduced across the river in Gatineau, Que.

• Photo radar debate brings battle of grassroots campaigns
• Jim Watson 'not convinced' city needs photo radar

In May, a city committee will debate whether Ottawa should introduce photo radar.

That has both sides of the argument making their pitch.

These opposing views sparked a debate on social media, especially on CBC Ottawa's Facebook page.

Here are the pros

"The only people complaining about photo radar being a cash grab are people who speed. How do you solve this problem? Don't speed. If it's hard to understand, don't get a licence," says Jessica Kurchaba.

"Photo radar is a great way to raise cash to inject into the community. Take the revenue from it and pour it into the cost of maintaining city parks and pools. Or about a thousand other needs," said Diane Reid.

"Don't speed and there is no 'cash' grab — the so called 'cash' grab is the fine for speeding so it's not some mysterious undefined new tax!" said Pablo Sobrino.

"Photo radar is great. It is a voluntary tax that helps pay for stuff in the city. Rather than raising everybody's taxes, you only increase them for people who are 'above the law,'" said Clayton Desjardins.

"People threw a huge fit when they put these in around here about 10 years ago, they found other things to cry about and forgot all about those cameras over time," said Mike Steele, a native of Michigan.

Here are the cons

"If the radar is manned, an officer will notice something is wrong with it. They also have the ability to visually determine the vehicle is speeding before confirming it with their device — something that isn't done with photo radar," said David Mushing.

"It frees up more officers to ticket people not signaling, no lights, wrong lane, unsafe vehicles. But in reality, it won't make anything safer," said Roy Bontius.

"People speed because speed limits are arbitrarily set far lower than they should be. If you raised the limits to more appropriate numbers you would lose most of the opposition to them," said Kyle Racine.

"Accepting this is a first step to accept more taxes," said Kyrprat Eremo.

"Photo radar slows cars down and generates income for the city. Since no demerit points or insurance rate hikes are possible the rich can speed. Assign real police officers to give tickets," said Doug Wilson.

Share your opinion by tweeting @CBCOttawa or commenting on our Facebook page.