Across the Township a common complaint is traffic travelling too fast on the local road going through the neighbourhoods. In Ward 5 traffic calming has been installed in 2 different areas (GO train station area and quadrant north of King Road and west of Keele.) The latter area was not completely implemented and data collection for Norman is still pending. As there is always a time lag between asking for traffic calming and having it implemented people want to know how long it will take. You can now see the queue for data collection which is the first step in the process. For more information on the process see the media release.
Dear Debbie,
While I appreciate, understand and agree with ‘traffic calming’, I have found that municipalities typically implement a ‘speed bump’ type solution. While these are somewhat effective on some vehicles, they are not effective on all vehicles, they do not affect behavioural change, they provide a false sense of security, and are detrimental to first responders (especially firefighting vehicles and equipment) resulting in more costly municipal vehicle maintenance and delayed emergency responses …ultimately a lose-lose proposition.
Perhaps a more effective traffic calming solution would be a series of permanent traffic cameras coupled with serious meaningful consequences (similar to Australia’s traffic calming systems). This traffic calming could also be installed at all high risk locations (such as at schools, crosswalks and high incident intersections).
The true goal here is to protect the health and safety of our residents from irresponsible, inconsiderate and dangerous drivers.
To calm traffic, I believe a permeant effective solution with a reasonable return-on-investment (so as not to further burden local rate-payers any more than we already are) and that would likely become a profit centre is the more prudent course of action. If the initial capital outlay is not doable under the current budget or would require more taxation or would require funding beyond allowable municipal timelines, then I suggest rate-payers be offered an equity share proportional to their capital advance which would include a dividend of sorts from the net profits … a truly local community P3 solution.
Yours,
Concerned Local Resident
Hello, I understand your point that speed humps and bollards are not going to solve the problem. Like so many things different methods are required for different situations. At the April 27 Council meeting there was a Staff recommendation recommending that Twshp move to an Automated Speed Enforcement Program and purchase 2 speed cameras for a start. Follow this link to learn more. https://debbieschaefer.ca/automated-speed-enforcement/
I apologize that it has taken me so long to respond to your very thoughtful comments on this subject.
I would like to add that along Jane street the traffic is moving very fast as well. It is being used as the alternate when HWY 400 is blocked and the cars seem to think that the speed limit is 100 KM/Hr. Also there are a lot of dump trucks racing down with a full load. I saw a few of them passing cars on a two-lane road. We need to do something about that.
hello John,
There are a couple things that you can do to raise awarenss of the issue with both York Regional Police and York bRegion Transportation.
Is strongly recommend that your report a community concern i.e what you have described. I hear often from YRP that this is an effective tool for citizens to report such. And I encourage you to report several times different observations/different days. https://onlinereporting.yrp.ca/communityconcerns.html
Also alert York Region Transportation about your concerns and observations. Send an email to transportation@york.ca and describe what you are observing. From experiences of others I am confident that there will be a follow up with you. Provice your name, address and contact info.
I agree with John about Jane St. Another very dangerous road is 17th SR from Jane to Dufferin. York Region has dropped the speed limit to 50 kph, down from 60 kph. I have found the road to be MORE dangerous now than before. People fly along 17th, passing others. While driving West, just over the limit at 55 kph, I was passed by no less than FOUR cars at the same time, ON A HILL, with two actually honking at me! I did inform the police about this and they did set up speed traps. There are now ‘SLOW’ signs attached to the road in these areas and every one of them has been run over, and one has been painted. There seems to be a total lack of driving consideration now, with everyone intent on just getting there, with no regard to how.