With speed cameras gone, Milton is spending $515,000 on school parking enforcement and adding no-U-turn signs at five intersections

Where the speed-camera money went

After the Province repealed municipalities' authority to run automated speed enforcement, Milton Council approved a motion in December 2025 to explore a Traffic Safety Outreach Pilot Program, funded by reallocating $914,804 from the cancelled speed-camera capital project. That motion proposed four contract Traffic Safety Officers over 21 months, focused on pedestrian safety education, according to staff report COMS-008-26.

Staff told Council they supported the intent but found no comparable program in other municipalities and could not determine how its effectiveness would be measured, so they proposed alternatives. On June 22, 2026, Council approved those alternatives, according to the meeting's minutes, including a new $515,000 capital project for school parking enforcement funded from the pilot's budget. The report says the remaining $399,804 is available for other traffic safety infrastructure, and that the equipment adds $31,637 a year in operating costs, funded in 2026 from the Tax Rate Stabilization Reserve.

The report says staff observed pedestrians at the busiest crossovers often not pressing the push button, so the flashing lights did not engage, along with mid-block crossing on Thompson Road South and Louis St. Laurent Avenue, and illegal parking and stopping during school pick-up and drop-off. The pedestrian-detection units, which the Town calls Smart Watch technology, detect people automatically. Staff plan to expand them by the end of summer 2027 to crossings at Main Street East and Hugh Lane, Martin Street south of Millside Drive, Main Street East and Prince Street, Bronte Street South and John Street, and Maple Avenue and Woodward Avenue.

Five new no-U-turn locations

Also on June 22, Council approved report COMS-005-26 and passed By-law 061-2026, which bans U-turns at five signalized intersections under the Town's jurisdiction. Staff reviewed 58 signalized intersections and recommended signs where sightlines fall short of the Highway Traffic Act standard or where two protected green-arrow phases can send vehicles into the same lane at once. The by-law takes effect at each location once the signs are up; the report put the cost of the signs at about $1,500.

• Main Street East at the mall entrance east of Ontario Street, eastbound
• Ontario Street at Main Street, northbound
• Ontario Street South at Laurier Avenue, westbound
• Thompson Road South at Nipissing Road, northbound and southbound
• Thompson Road South at Drew Centre, northbound

The same by-law adds a weekday school-hours stopping ban on the east side of Fourth Line between Louis St. Laurent Avenue and Stewart Crescent (south intersection), from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. and 2 to 3 p.m., September 1 to June 30. Nine other major Town intersections, several of them along Louis St. Laurent Avenue, already had no-U-turn signs, the report says.

Other 2026 work already budgeted

The report lists traffic calming in 2026 on Woodward Avenue between Ontario Street North and Thompson Road North, Etheridge Avenue between Bronte Street South and Regional Road 25, and Armstrong Boulevard between Bennett Boulevard and Derry Road, with temporary calming installed on Yates Drive on June 3. It also lists raised crosswalks at roundabouts on Bronte Street South and on Louis St. Laurent Avenue at Kennedy Circle East, an upgraded crossing at Elsie MacGill Secondary School, and an all-way stop at Sixth Line Nassagaweya and 15 Sideroad. Staff report that traffic calming has cut 85th-percentile operating speeds by an average of 10 km/h where it has been installed.