Kitchener city council votes to lower speed limits to 40 km/h in residential areas
Kitchener city council voted to approve lowering speed limits in residential areas at a Monday night meeting.
Currently, the speed limit on residential streets in Kitchener is 50 km/h, but a proposal presented to council suggested lowering that to 40 km/h, with school zones dropped down to 30 km/h.
"This is one tool in trying to help decrease speeds, and as a member of council, this is one issue I hear most about," said Coun. Kelly Galloway-Sealock. "I think it's important for us to take any steps we can to try and decrease the speed on roads."
Council voted in favour of the plan on Monday night. Coun. John Gazzola was the only vote against it.
"I realize that speeding is an issue, but we're not getting a good bang for our dollar," he said. "We're spending $550,000 to put signs up all over the place."
The recommendation was brought to city council earlier in October following the Neighbourhood Speed Limit Pilot Project that was launched in 2019 by Transportation Services.
The pilot project lowered speed limits in three Kitchener neighbourhoods.
According to city staff, the project saw drivers in those areas slow down by one to 11 per cent.
Kitchener's transportation manager Aaron McCrimmon-Jones said lowering speed limits will make roads safer.
"A 15 per cent survival rate increased to 70 per cent if somebody is hit by a car if somebody is driving 40 (km/h) rather than 50 (km/h)," he said.
The project is estimated to cost the city $550,000. The price tag includes new signage and installation as well as community education.
During the Monday night meeting, city staff said the project would likely take two years to complete as workers need to install more than 1,000 signs throughout the city. Only when the signs are installed do the new speed limits come into effect.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.