Speed cameras issue 7,000 tickets in Wellington County in 2 weeks

New speed enforcement cameras in Fergus, Aberfoyle, Palmerston and Mount Forest leads to thousands of tickets. CTV’s Jeff Pickel explains.

More than 7,000 speeding tickets have been issued in only two weeks after four speed cameras were placed across Wellington County as part of a two-year pilot project.

The cameras are in Fergus, Palmerston, Aberfoyle and Mount Forest.

“So it’s been effective at giving out tickets that we’re really hopeful that driver behavior will change and that we will give out a lot less tickets in the months to come,” said Gregg Davidson, the mayor of the Township of Mapleton.

Davidson said they’ve received complaints from people getting the tickets.

“They might feel they’re being targeted, but if they just follow the speed limits that are there - they’re not guidelines, they’re actually the law - they won’t get a ticket,” he said.

Almost 7,200 tickets were handed out in 15 days which works out to about 479 tickets each day and on average about 20 tickets per hour or one ticket every three minutes.

Some residents in the area where the cameras have been placed, don’t mind them.

“It’s a warning sign, especially because it’s a school zone. You see a lot of cars flying by,” said Natalie, a Wellington County resident.

Another camera is installed in Drayton. The county and its townships are also considering adding even more. Davison said he supports that idea.

“I’ve noticed that the vehicles are going much slower than they used to before the cameras were active here,” said Davidson. “They’re doing what they’re supposed to do [by] curbing driver behavior. We’re not out to look for revenue.”

The money collected from the tickets is shared between the county and the speed camera operating company. The exact details of how that money is split has not been made public.

The county has also not revealed how much over the speed limit drivers need to be travelling to trigger the camera, but Davidson said they will look at the data to see if it needs to be adjusted.