Toronto announces more speed cameras, says machines being turned off is a rarity

City officials announced Thursday that 25 more cameras are being installed as part of Toronto's automated speed enforcement program, in an effort to get motorists to slow down in problem areas.

The new cameras will now make for a total of 75 across the city, coming after workers installed 90-day warning signs in the areas where they'll be installed. Here's a list of where they will be.

At a news conference Thursday morning, Mayor John Tory said the city is on track for 150 automated speed enforcement cameras in the future.

"This is just the beginning," Tory said.

According to a news release issued Thursday, the devices issued 21,362 tickets in December, with the most tickets issued on Parkside Drive south of Algonquin Avenue. The 1,841 tickets issued there marked nine per cent of all tickets issued that month. 

There were also 1,558 repeat offenders that month, the city says, with the most frequent one being a driver who managed to get 10 speeding tickets on Fenn Avenue north of Gordon Road in Don Valley West. That's still lower than the person who received 25 speeding tickets in October alone on Stilecroft Drive west of Sharpecroft Boulevard in York Centre.

City officials have heralded the automated speed camera program as a success, though it faced criticism online this week after one Torontonian pressed the city to discover they are taken out of service at various parts of the day.

Barbara Gray, the head of the city's transportation services division, told reporters Thursday that the city is "very satisfied" that the cameras are doing their job accurately — though she did say the cameras are "sometimes" taken offline so "ticket issuance quality" and "calibration" can be managed.

"The cameras are operational 24 hours a day. They may get turned off every now and again so we can make sure there's quality control being done and that we're calibrating properly. We randomize that so we can get the most coverage," she said.