Mayors Unite to Stop Gridlock

Some statistics say that we lose about 32 days on average sitting in traffic. Or to put another number on it, we lose almost three and a half billion dollars a year in lost productivity traveling between our home and our place of work. So needless to say, the daily commute, when put in those terms, is a bit more than a petty annoyance in the grand scheme of things. And you know what, Ontario's mayors, including our own Karen Farbridge, want to do something about it.

Radar Love?

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair announced today that he was endorsing the idea of bringing back photo radar cameras for busy Toronto intersections. Call it a blast from the past, as the older amongst you may remember the year 1994 and the Bob Rae government's 11 month experiment with the technology, which, unbeknownst to them at the time, was one of the last straws the Ontario NDP levied on the back of the people of the province before being replaced by Mike Harris' PCs in 1995.

But in the here and now, Blair's justifications are squarely fiscal: with Toronto City Council unwilling to consider increased funding for policing in the 2013 budget, Blair says that placing the devices at key intersections will free up officers to perform other duties rather than standing on a street corner and issuing citations. It's a smart way to frame it considering that the photo radar experiment in the 90s was characterized by opponents as a blatant tax grab. And although some are ready to paint photo radar 2.0 in a similar light, there's another reason photo radar might be a good idea: drivers are crazy.