GuelphToday received the following Letter to the Editor from reader, Jef ten Kortenaar, in response to City keeps very little of money generated by automated speed cameras:
I read with interest the article by Taylor Pace explaining the revenue and expense expectations for the four speed cameras deployed by the city as part of its Vision Zero program. I must admit that I was shocked to read that in the end very little of the revenue generated comes back to the city itself with most of it ending up in the hands of a company based in Arizona. The numbers quoted were that 1.375 million dollars would be generated and the city would keep about $70,000 of that.
I have a simple suggestion that would keep more of that money in Guelph. The city could hold a competition open to all Guelph families to come up with a musical tribute to driving safely in our city. The winning family would then have the right for a year to provide round the clock monitoring of the four locations currently covered by the speed cameras. They would be given the power to ticket and prosecute offenders and for this they would receive 1.2 million dollars for the year. They would be like the von Trapp family, or rather the von Speed Trapp family. A Win-Win situation!
Jef ten Kortenaar,
Guelph, Ont.
