By gtechna

TWO YEARS LATER

Two years after earning national recognition, Kitchener’s AI-LPR and Ticket-by-Mail program continues to improve compliance and safety in school zones. All while serving as proof of concept for similar programs across the province. Here’s what happened after the award, and what all municipalities can learn from it.

In 2024, Kitchener’s new approach to school-zone parking enforcement caught the attention of the Canadian Parking Association, earning the city its Innovation in Parking Operations and Programs Award.

For good reason. With AI-LPR and Ticket-by-Mail, one vehicle could cover all 64 school zones in roughly half the time. Ticket revenue rose by 25–35%, while contested citations held up every time. And in the busy streets around schools, officers could do their work without repeatedly stopping and stepping out into traffic.

Two years later, Kitchener can answer another useful question: Does it work over time?

The answer is yes—and perhaps more importantly, the program keeps evolving.

Traffic Safety and Compliance Go Hand in Hand

Today, school-zone ticket revenue remains approximately 20% higher than it was before Kitchener introduced AI-LPR.

That is below the initial increase, but there is an important reason to look beyond a single KPI. Revenue has remained consistently above pre-AI-LPR levels, while officers are also reporting higher levels of compliance in school zones.

That shift in driver behavior points to the long-term impact of consistent enforcement and brings the program back to the reason it was introduced in the first place: safer school zones.

For Ian Misheal, Manager of By-Law Services for the City of Kitchener, that is the outcome that matters most:

“From our perspective, the real measure of success isn’t the revenue generated, it’s the improvement in compliance and safety.” — Ian Misheal, Manager of By-Law Services for the City of Kitchener

And there’s more. The success rate is still close to the perfect score, standing at approximately 99%, with only one successfully challenged school-zone ticket in the last 12 months.

Built to Work Beyond the Pilot

What began with one vehicle in Kitchener’s school zones has grown into a three-vehicle AI-LPR fleet, with the technology now used in paid parking lots, for No Parking Anytime enforcement, and to identify vehicles exceeding posted time limits.

School-zone enforcement gave Kitchener a chance to prove the technology in the field and build a working model around it. With that foundation in place, the city could begin looking beyond the original use case and consider where the same approach could add value next.

Ian Misheal explains:

“As officers became more comfortable with the technology and saw the results it was producing, we identified additional enforcement areas where it could improve efficiency and compliance.” — Ian Misheal, Manager of By-Law Services for the City of Kitchener

Each expansion builds on technology, experience, and processes Kitchener has already tested in the real world. From there, each new application has built on the last, turning one successful use case into a growing enforcement program.

Two Years of Results Change the Conversation

When Kitchener first put AI-LPR on the road, the use of artificial intelligence made headlines. Questions followed about privacy, data collection, and how much authority was being handed over to technology. For Ian Misheal, that early scrutiny brought an important lesson: introducing the system meant explaining it just as carefully.

“It became clear very quickly that we needed to communicate that the system was simply a tool used by officers. Every alert still requires human review, and officers remain responsible for making decisions.”

Kitchener had the privacy, data-handling, and security safeguards in place, but it also had to make them visible enough for people to trust the system.

Then something interesting happened: the conversation moved on. Two years of results have done much of the talking. The early hesitation from Council has faded. In fact, Misheal says Council members now regularly ask for the AI-LPR vehicles to be deployed to address parking and traffic concerns in their own wards.

And the conversations about what AI could improve in curb management are reaching well beyond Kitchener.

Why Recognition Matters

Good ideas travel faster when people can see them working. The CPA Innovation Award gave Kitchener’s approach that visibility, putting a proven project in front of municipalities facing similar challenges.

The interest followed. Since the award, Kitchener has welcomed municipal teams looking to see the technology firsthand and regularly hears from communities hoping to learn from its experience.

“Sharing our experiences, successes, and lessons learned has become an important part of the program’s legacy, and we’re proud to help other municipalities benefit from what we’ve learned.” — Ian Misheal, Manager of By-Law Services for the City of Kitchener

That peer-to-peer exchange can build confidence and make the path to implementation easier. For the City of Mississauga, for example, Kitchener offered a nearby example to learn from before moving forward.

“Our visit to Kitchener helped move the conversation around LPR and Ticket-by-Mail from concept to practical application. Seeing the program operating successfully in another municipality provided a real-world example that informed discussions and helped shape Mississauga’s approach as we evaluated the technology.” — Harpal Singh, IT Client Portfolio Leader, City of Mississauga

Kitchener’s experience shows why going first matters: a successful project does more than improve one city’s operations. It gives the next municipality a clearer path forward and turns hard-earned lessons into shared knowledge.

That may be the real legacy of the award-winning project because innovation has the greatest impact when others no longer have to start from scratch.

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