Excessive speeding and stunt driving on a road in Cambridge has spurred a call for action.

City council passed a motion Tuesday night to ask the Region of Waterloo to designate McQueen Shaver Boulevard a "community safety zone."

This would allow traffic cameras to be installed.

"You want to test your cars? Test your bikes? You do it there," said Coun. Adam Cooper. "The length of it, the view down it, the ability to look down and see whether someone is enforcing it has made it perfect for that.

"People who live there are seeing this. I feel it's only a matter of time before a serious accident occurs."

The speed limit reads 60 km/h, but the motion says residents and police have clocked drivers going as fast as 200 km/h.

The motion says residents and police have clocked drivers going as fast as 200 km/h.

"This happens more later in the evening, but even in the day I've seen these muscle cars," said nearby resident Susan Shackleton. "It's like living next to a NASCAR raceway."

Lori Bryan has lived in the area for 13 years. Her backyard backs onto the nearby three kilometres of roadway that first opened in 2021.

“As soon as people started to know that that road was open, they would use it as a drag race,” Bryan said.

Bryan said the speeding is so severe she plans to move and is hoping to sell her home by next year.

“Somebody could end up in our backyards very easily. It’s not a matter of if - it’s when,” she said.

Under the province's traffic safety act, speed enforcement systems can only be installed in community safety zones or school zones.

Cambridge council also requested that rule be changed to allow municipalities to install systems on any roads they deem necessary.

Police reported catching a G2 licence driver going nearly 100 km/h over the limit on McQueen Shaver Boulevard last month.

Back in August of last year, the traffic unit clocked three speeders on the road within an hour. On one night in summer of 2021, five stunt drivers were charged along McQueen Shaver Boulevard.

NEXT STEPS

Coun. Cooper said there’s a possibility for a sound wall to be built between the homes and roadway to limit the amount of traffic noise.

Cooper could not verify a cost or timeline for the cameras to be installed. CTV News reached out to the City of Cambridge and the Region of Waterloo for comment, but they did not make themselves available.