Red light traffic camera with mounted strobe lights. File. THUNDER BAY – Despite a strong recommendation from city administration, Thunder Bay’s city council isn’t quite ready to bring a red light camera system to the community.
Councillors voted Monday for more public consultation before committing to the system, a provincial program that uses sensors to automatically capture photos of drivers running red lights.
Images are sent to the Joint Processing Centre in Toronto for review, with tickets mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle. Fines for the offence run to $325, with a victim surcharge and court cost.
The camera program had reduced the number of serious accidents and fatalities in other Ontario cities where it was implemented, a review by city staff found. All 12 cities currently participating recouped program costs or made a profit through revenue from fines.
THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay’s city council has voted to remove traffic lights at the intersections of Frederica Street at Brown Street and Donald Street at Vickers Street.
Both locations have long failed to meet provincial standards setting out when traffic signals are recommended, city staff reported Monday.
The lights are expected to be replaced with four-way stops.
The city will follow procedures for public notice and consider feedback from nearby residents before proceeding.
The city conducted traffic signal reviews for the intersection at Frederica and Brown four times between 2006 and 2018, assessing factors including traffic and pedestrian volumes, delay to cross traffic, and collisions.
Red light cameras could be coming to Thunder Bay in 2021. (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)
THUNDER BAY – Motorists who race through red lights may find it a lot more costly if city officials have their way.
Council on Monday is being asked to approve a red-light camera program at 10 yet-to-be-identified intersections in Thunder Bay.
A ticket under the program would cost the vehicle owner $325, including a $260 ticket, a $60 victim surcharge and a $5 court cost. The city projects the project would bring in as much $2.1 million in fine revenue in Year 1, generating a profit of $1.28 million. By Year 5 the fines would total an estimated $1.7 million, with a profit of $886,000, as motorists adapt to the cameras being in place. The worst-case projections show fine revenues ranging from $1.4 million in Year 1 to $1.1 million in Year 5, and profit margins between $537,000 and $276,000.
Edward Street bridge (staff picture)
The Edward Street bridge between Riverview and Parkway will be replaced this summer.
The city’s Director of Engineering Kayla Dixon tells us it was going to be refurbished, costing $2-million, but that changed once further assessments were done. “Once we actually had a structural engineer start the design work… they went in and did the field investigations, and that’s when it was determined the full replacement would be the better option.”
The Director of Engineering adds that part of Edward will be closed from May or June into the fall, while the $6-million job is done.
The main reason is money, said Kayla Dixon, the director of engineering and operations for the city. Basically when we looked at our final project list, we kind of ran out of budget envelope for this year, she said.
The city has budgeted $4M for 2022, and $4.7M for 2023 to complete the job. We do have to move forward with specific projects, like our water main replacements, so, the Balmoral one was one that we could defer.
Dixon said the next phases of the work have been moved to 2022, and work will be completed between Central Avenue and Beverly Street in 2023.