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Mono mayor fights to slow Airport Road traffic, make roads safer

September 1, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By James Matthews, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Mono Mayor John Creelman hopes third time is the charm when it comes to convincing the province to address reckless driving on Airport Road.

In his third letter to Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney, the mayor invites her to visit Mono with Premier Doug Ford and Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones. Then they can witness the speeding and aggressive driving that’s become common on Airport Road.

“This is the third time we have addressed correspondence to this minister raising issues such as speeding, inability to hold reckless drivers accountable, and problems with highways through Mono,” Creelman said.

The missive was also sent to Ford, Jones, and Attorney General Doug Downey.

The letter specifically noted that basic speeding fines have not increased in over a quarter century. It also asked the province to relax rules that make it impossible to deploy Automatic Speed Enforcement (ASE) on roadways where the speed limit is 80 km/hr

“Potentially being caught on camera with an appropriate penalty would definitely deter speeding,” Creelman said. 

The letter tackles other issues such as the need for proper signalization at Highway 10 and Camilla as well as Highway 10 and Hockley Road. It addresses the need for environmentally responsible roadway illumination as well as an unsafe lane on Highway 9 west of the 1st Line.

In his letter, Creelman said he spoke with Mulroney in January 2020 about rules that govern the use of ASE. The means of enforcement is restricted to Community Safety Zones and school zones. Speed limits there don’t exceed 79 km/hr.

“This ties our hands and deprives us of a needed tool to discourage speeding and reckless driving,” he wrote. “We desperately need the option to deploy ASE on 80 km/h roads where speeding is chronic, epidemic and out of control.”

The letter continues, “For us to deploy AES under the current rules, we would need to reduce the speed limit by one kilometre per hour and declare long stretches of roadway a Community Safety Zone.

“To declare school zones where there are no schools would be absurd and make a mockery of the concepts of Community Safety and School Zones,” the mayor wrote.

Mono was one of the first municipalities in Ontario to embrace OPP contract

Policing, he said, and augment the level of regular enforcement with an additional part-time officer dedicated primarily to traffic enforcement. Since then, we contracted for additional enforcement.

“Despite this, speeding and reckless driving remain a chronic and disturbing reality on many of our roads,” Creelman wrote. “Police officers can’t be everywhere and municipalities are hard pressed to pay for any more enforcement, especially with massive declines in Provincial Offences Act (POA) fine revenue.”

Higher fines will be a better deterrent to aggressive driving.

Creelman said fine revenue was intended to partly offset municipal policing costs. But POA administrative and court costs have soared while fine revenue has cratered.

There’s been no increase in speeding fines for years. Factoring for inflation, a dollar in fine revenue in the mid 1980s equals only 58 cents today. And all other costs associated with running the system have increased significantly, the mayor said.

COVID dramatically affected the operation of POA courts and collection of fine

revenue.

“This is not, however, the only reason revenue is down,” the mayor said.

He attributes the issue to chronic judicial resource shortages and uncreative administration of POA courts by the judiciary. Courts are being cancelled, charges plead out (or simply withdrawn) with fines dramatically discounted and charges withdrawn to purge court dockets.

“All these factors have caused a decline in POA fine revenue for Mono from a high of around $180,000 annually to a low of $35,000,” Creelman wrote. “We count on this revenue to partly offset the cost of policing our roadways.

“This reduction of POA fine revenue is occurring across Ontario.”

He said Mono council has brought a number of road issues to the ministry’s attention over the years. The Highway 10/County Road 8 intersection needs a signal light, Creelman added.

The outside westbound lane on Highway 9 just beyond the 1st Line EHS Mono vanishes only to re-emerge a number of metres later.

Also problematic is the absence of advance green signals at the intersection of Highway 10 and Hockley Road.

“Recently both Mono and Dufferin County councils passed motions calling on

MTO to improve signalization at this intersection,” Creelman wrote.

Highway lighting needs to be modernized, in particular on the south side of Highway 9 east of Orangeville. MTO installed a string of lights more than 20 years ago along that stretch of highway, which was already well lit by businesses on the north side.

While the ministry updated lighting on Highway 10 north of Highway 9 and south of Hockley Rood with modern energy-efficient luminaries that cause less light pollution, this section of Highway 9 remains over lit with inefficient polluting fixtures, he wrote in his letter.

“We request modernization of all MTO highway illumination in Mono,” Creelman said. “I hope this time our concerns will be heard.”

Mono mayor fights to slow Airport Road traffic, make roads safer

By JAMES MATTHEWS

Mono Mayor John Creelman hopes third time is the charm when it comes to convincing the province to address reckless driving on Airport Road.

In his third letter to Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney, the mayor invites her to visit Mono with Premier Doug Ford and Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones. Then they can witness the speeding and aggressive driving that’s become common on Airport Road.

“This is the third time we have addressed correspondence to this minister raising issues such as speeding, inability to hold reckless drivers accountable, and problems with highways through Mono,” Creelman said.

The missive was also sent to Ford, Jones, and Attorney General Doug Downey.

The letter specifically noted that basic speeding fines have not increased in over a quarter century. It also asked the province to relax rules that make it impossible to deploy Automatic Speed Enforcement (ASE) on roadways where the speed limit is 80 km/hr

“Potentially being caught on camera with an appropriate penalty would definitely deter speeding,” Creelman said. 

The letter tackles other issues such as the need for proper signalization at Highway 10 and Camilla as well as Highway 10 and Hockley Road. It addresses the need for environmentally responsible roadway illumination as well as an unsafe lane on Highway 9 west of the 1st Line.

In his letter, Creelman said he spoke with Mulroney in January 2020 about rules that govern the use of ASE. The means of enforcement is restricted to Community Safety Zones and school zones. Speed limits there don’t exceed 79 km/hr.

“This ties our hands and deprives us of a needed tool to discourage speeding and reckless driving,” he wrote. “We desperately need the option to deploy ASE on 80 km/h roads where speeding is chronic, epidemic and out of control.”

The letter continues, “For us to deploy AES under the current rules, we would need to reduce the speed limit by one kilometre per hour and declare long stretches of roadway a Community Safety Zone.

“To declare school zones where there are no schools would be absurd and make a mockery of the concepts of Community Safety and School Zones,” the mayor wrote.

Mono was one of the first municipalities in Ontario to embrace OPP contract

Policing, he said, and augment the level of regular enforcement with an additional part-time officer dedicated primarily to traffic enforcement. Since then, we contracted for additional enforcement.

“Despite this, speeding and reckless driving remain a chronic and disturbing reality on many of our roads,” Creelman wrote. “Police officers can’t be everywhere and municipalities are hard pressed to pay for any more enforcement, especially with massive declines in Provincial Offences Act (POA) fine revenue.”

Higher fines will be a better deterrent to aggressive driving.

Creelman said fine revenue was intended to partly offset municipal policing costs. But POA administrative and court costs have soared while fine revenue has cratered.

There’s been no increase in speeding fines for years. Factoring for inflation, a dollar in fine revenue in the mid 1980s equals only 58 cents today. And all other costs associated with running the system have increased significantly, the mayor said.

COVID dramatically affected the operation of POA courts and collection of fine

revenue.

“This is not, however, the only reason revenue is down,” the mayor said.

He attributes the issue to chronic judicial resource shortages and uncreative administration of POA courts by the judiciary. Courts are being cancelled, charges plead out (or simply withdrawn) with fines dramatically discounted and charges withdrawn to purge court dockets.

“All these factors have caused a decline in POA fine revenue for Mono from a high of around $180,000 annually to a low of $35,000,” Creelman wrote. “We count on this revenue to partly offset the cost of policing our roadways.

“This reduction of POA fine revenue is occurring across Ontario.”

He said Mono council has brought a number of road issues to the ministry’s attention over the years. The Highway 10/County Road 8 intersection needs a signal light, Creelman added.

The outside westbound lane on Highway 9 just beyond the 1st Line EHS Mono vanishes only to re-emerge a number of metres later.

Also problematic is the absence of advance green signals at the intersection of Highway 10 and Hockley Road.

“Recently both Mono and Dufferin County councils passed motions calling on

MTO to improve signalization at this intersection,” Creelman wrote.

Highway lighting needs to be modernized, in particular on the south side of Highway 9 east of Orangeville. MTO installed a string of lights more than 20 years ago along that stretch of highway, which was already well lit by businesses on the north side.

While the ministry updated lighting on Highway 10 north of Highway 9 and south of Hockley Rood with modern energy-efficient luminaries that cause less light pollution, this section of Highway 9 remains over lit with inefficient polluting fixtures, he wrote in his letter.

“We request modernization of all MTO highway illumination in Mono,” Creelman said. “I hope this time our concerns will be heard.”

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