Despite the fact that the City of Toronto has vowed to crack down on speed racing, stunt driving and other unsafe and obnoxious highway offences that became more prevalent during pandemic lockdown, new stats show that a fair percentage of drivers caught speeding in the city aren't actually getting ticketed for it.

As part of the Vision Zero campaign to make the city's roads safer, speed limits have been reduced in many neighbourhoods and 50 Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras were installed in problem areas in recent years.

The cameras, which change locations every few weeks, have busted tens of thousands of motorists so far, but 26.3 per cent that were documented speeding by the high-tech devices in the last year haven't received fines.

Here are the intersections where Toronto's speed cameras have issued the most tickets https://t.co/UMt0jV4Naz #Toronto

— blogTO (@blogTO) November 16, 2021

This is due to a number of factors, including a firm provincial deadline for processing the photos captured to ensure tickets are distributed to drivers within 30 days, staffing issues at the city level (largely due to the pandemic), obstructions preventing the proper reading of license plates, and more, a city staffer told the Star.

It all amounted to a staggering 89,000 drivers getting away with impunity out of 339,000 or so caught going over the limit in 2021 — and that's on top of those who weren't even nabbed because the devices aren't on for certain, randomized portions of the day.

The reason for shutting them off? The sheer volume of infractions and thus tickets, meaning that there is apparently no capacity available to deal with them.

Toronto speed enforcement cameras are actually causing drivers to slow down https://t.co/WMH6EpqFLA #Toronto

— blogTO (@blogTO) August 24, 2021

Still, despite this oversight in actually fining people, the ASE cameras have been proven to cause drivers to slow down in fear of getting detected, with the number of vehicles travelling over the posted speed limit decreasing after they were installed.