Red light camera revenue tops $1M again, but region says numbers are starting to drop

There aren't too many programs the Region of Waterloo should be happy to see diminishing financial returns from but, when it comes to red light cameras, less revenue is good revenue.

That said, with 15 of 16 cameras operational last year, the cameras still cleared a million dollars worth of fines issued.

At roughly $500 thousand dollars to operate, that's still a net revenue of around $640 thousand which eventually gets dispersed across various regional programs.

“This is typical of what we've seen over the past few years and, in fact, it's come down about 40 per cent from previous years before that,” said Bob Henderson, Manager of Transportation Engineering, Region of Waterloo.

Henderson says that drop looks to be the result of both the red light cameras and installing pedestrian countdown signals at intersections across the region.

That said, fewer fines means less fine revenue going into the region's tax levy but, when it comes down to it, the red light camera program is not meant to be a yearly profit earner.

“Absolutely, that's the main intent of the whole program is to stop people from running red lights,” said Henderson. “In theory, if everyone followed the law and didn't run through red lights, we'd have revenue of zero dollars.”

The numbers, seeming to show the program is working, but Henderson says there's no plan right now for expansion.

“This program's very transparent, we will only put them in where we're seeing problems and, since we've had 16 cameras, we've seen no need to expand the program based on problems at other intersections,” he said.

So no expansion, but also no reduction either. Henderson saying more than a million bucks in fines shows there's still an issue and many drivers are still running reds at problem intersections.

One such spot is at the lights on University Ave. outside the Zehrs just west of Highway 85 which, last year, averaged about two tickets issued every single day.