WAWA — Wawa council has voted against a bylaw that would reduce residential speed limits in the town.
Council was presented a report from municipal assistant director of infrastructure services Rebecca Weatherall at their meeting this week, which could have led to residential roadways having posted limits of 40 kilometers per hour, dowm from the current 50.
In the report, Weatherall said the municipality had from some members of the public felt that motorists, specifically, heavy equipment vehicles were perceived as driving too fast on residential streets.
The report found there was minimal speeding by heavy equipment vehicles on residential roads, according to Weatherall.
“Our traffic count indicated that on streets, more specifically, in and around the snow dump area which is where we got the most complaints from, there is anywhere from five to 10 times more personal vehicle traffic than there is heavy equipment traffic,” Weatherall said.
Weatherall also acknowledges that town staff did drive-alongs with their heavy equipment operator and found that these types of vehicles aren’t capable of accelerating to speeds of 50 kilometres per hour.
“Due to the maneuverability of a large vehicle like that, the types of turn you have to take, understanding that there are other vehicles and sometimes there are pedestrians on the road, our vehicles don’t really get anywhere more than 30 to 42 kilometres per hour. It really just not easy to do,” she said.
Although the speeding data shows that speeding isn’t a major concern on the streets of Wawa, at least not one that warrants the cost of replacing signage and educating the public as Coun. Cathy Cannon noted, Weatherall pointed to a street guideline statistic that was presented to the City of Toronto suggesting a reduction in speed limit has the potential to increase the survivability rate of the public from 15 per cent to 70 percent.
“That alone is worth looking at in terms of increasing residential street safety by just dropping our speed limit in town to 40 kilometres per hour,” said Weatherall.
Weatherall also said that last year infrastructure services looked into reducing the speed limit of municipal trucks; however, she states “you can’t do that according to the Highway Traffic Act.”
Cannon declined the suggestion to reduce the speed limit.
“Is it really going to stop the speeders?" she asked. "Speeders are going to speed, and we spending that money for what?”
Mayor Melanie Pilon recognizes that the report was issued because some citizens of Wawa were concerned for public safety, due to a perception of motorists exceeding the speed limit on residential streets.
“I do recognize that even perceived speeding, perception really is a reality for these people living in this neighbourhood. So, I think it is serious problem and I think it’s incumbent on the mayor and council to provide some kind of solution for these residents. With that being said, I’m not sure that reduction for the whole community is the answer,” said Pilon.
Pilon suggests implementing an alternative to catch speeders by converting the speed spy traffic counter to record vehicle information and send it to the police to issue tickets.
“I think that’s maybe a technology we can look at and it will also kind of act as a revenue generator for the municipality, but I think whatever the outcome we should communicate that with the concern citizens group,” said Pilon.
