BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via our website. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled 'Speed cameras coming into focus at two Barrie locations this week,' published Nov. 27.
The new speed cameras in Barrie are a blatant cash grab.
On Anne Street North, near Portage View Public School, the city has installed speed cameras in a manner specifically designed to catch drivers driving at normal speed by:
- not putting large speed limit signs where the speed limit drops from 50 to 40 km/h;
- covering up the school zone flashing lights;
- and especially, posting the sign warning about speed cameras — in rather small print — less than 100 metres from the actual camera location and past the small lower speed limit sign, which is small and on the post with the disabled flashers.
Argue all you want that people drive too fast, but there are other ways of warning people of it.
I was on Anne Street Friday morning and that speed camera was flashing more than a Christmas tree.
If the City of Barrie really wanted to deter speeding, rather than just cashing in on unsuspecting drivers, they would increase speed limit awareness.
And also, conveniently, the city put the speed cameras on a hill, on a street with increased traffic because the Sunnidale Road bridge is out indefinitely.
I don’t believe the city is being honest in its intention to deter speeding. If it was, why cover up the school zone flashing lights? I hope people fight these tickets.
Mark Jessop
Barrie
