Barrie to invest $10K generated from photo radar cameras to add more to curb speeding

Barrie city councillors are driving plans forward to add more speed enforcement cameras to pump the brakes on bad driving behaviours.

"Reduce the speeds, and for those who don't, we are going to reinvest in the safety throughout our city," said Mayor Alex Nuttall, who signalled his interest in adding more photo radar cameras weeks ago.

"We have somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50 schools in the city," Nuttall said. "We will make sure that we reduce speeds in school zones."

The City plans to invest $10,000 generated from the two current speed cameras to add two more, which will also be relocated every few months to community zones deemed problem areas for speeding.

At Wednesday's meeting, councillors also discussed hiring a staffer to monitor the increased paperwork from the program that has resulted in hundreds of speeding tickets.

With safety at the forefront of the meeting, councillors also considered the possibility of adding nine locations for crossing guards to monitor.

It remains unclear how the program would be funded and what a partnership with the school boards would look like.

The City has deferred the matter to the Community Safety Committee, which will revisit it in a few weeks.