More residential streets across the capital are seeing their speed limits reduced to 30 kilometres per hour.
Last week alone, transportation committee approved reducing the speed limits of six streets to 30 kilometres per hour. Many councillors say speeding is the number one issue they hear about from constituents.
But area residents near some streets with the lower speed limit say drivers disregard the rules and the signs are not enough.
On Holland Avenue near Highway 417, many drivers travel up to 60 km/h, double the speed limit.
Joseph Kuchar lives on the street and sees the speeding day and night.
“It’s a residential street, there’s schools just down the road,” says Kuchar. I think it’s a good sign to have, but setting a speed limit and then just saying we’ll leave you to it isn’t working very well.”
Another area resident, Colin Hoyte says the speed limit is attainable but only if it’s enforced.
“We haven’t seen that done in the few years we lived here,” says Hoyte. “People speed because they can get away with it and living in this neighbourhood, I think 30 or 40 is fast enough.”
As more neighbourhoods make moves to cap the speed limit at 30 Km/h, down from 40 Km/h, many will say a sign doesn’t cut it.
But on some streets, temporary traffic calming measures have been added, such as centreline ‘flexi-posts’, large concrete planters and painted streets indicating, for example, to slow down for a school zone.
“The ability to bring in the 30 kilometre per hour has a number of strategies,” Coun. Mathieu Fleury said there are a number of reasons to bring in 30 km/h speed limits.
“The first one is really creating a difference between what is a main street or a corridor, which has a lot of commuters …versus cutting through a residential area.
“By seeing those different signs as a driver it does change the dynamic and slows your speeds down.”
Fleury says there is also a more comprehensive long-term plan at play because once a street has been designated with a lower limit, permanent solutions can be installed.
That includes adding wider sidewalks, more pedestrian crossings and raised intersections. And by narrowing the road for vehicles, motorists tend to feel less comfortable driving at higher speeds.
“When the city redoes those streets … it’s a different design altogether,” he said. “I’s a baseline that allows different intervention, as that over time can create much safer residential streets.
“It’s not perfect. We still need police to enforce, we still need adequate seasonal traffic enforcement measures. But in Vanier, we’re redoing 10 streets. That’s 10 streets that we can redesign to 30 kilometres per hour.”
