Shaving 10 kilometres an hour off Barrie’s speed limit is on city councillors’ radar.
A motion to have operations and development services department staff investigate the feasibility of lowering speed limits across the city, including the cost of replacing signs, and report back before next year’s budget talks, is an item for discussion on Monday night’s agenda.
“Speeding and traffic issues are probably the most frequent concerns raised by residents across the city. Studies have shown that vulnerable road users, like pedestrians and cyclists, are much more likely to be killed at speeds above 50 km/h,” said Coun. Keenan Aylwin, the motion’s sponsor.
“The World Health Organization says that pedestrians have been shown to have a 90 per cent survival rate when they are hit by a vehicle travelling at 30 km/h or below,” Aylwin added. “Just this month on Duckworth Street, we have seen two people tragically killed in traffic-related incidents. These deaths are preventable.
"I’m hoping that we can take this important step to improve traffic safety on our streets.”
On March 21, a 23-year-old Springwater Township man was killed in a single-vehicle crash on Cundles Road, travelling toward Duckworth Street. Barrie city police said speed was a factor.
Just five days earlier, an 88-year-old man was struck and killed by a vehicle only a couple of blocks away while crossing the street.
But Coun. Mike McCann questions whether lowering the speed limit is what city drivers want, and whether it’s effective. He pointed to an informal 2018 survey that found approximately 70 per cent of respondents didn’t want the speed limit lowered by 10 km/h.
“I don’t believe that lowering the speed limit is going to make it safer, in every scenario,” he said. “You could actually make the streets less safe in some situations. The only way to get what we’re all looking for — our streets at maximum safety — is to have police at every corner… and I don’t believe the residents of Barrie have an appetite for a huge jump in taxes to increase our police presence where they would be at every major intersection.”
McCann said city staff need to come back and say lowering speed limits would make the streets safer for him to support the reduction.
Peter Leon, communications co-ordinator with Barrie police, was asked about lowering the speed limit.
“Public and traffic safety are priorities of the Barrie Police Service and as a police service, we support initiatives that promote these core functions,” he said.
Speeding statistics for Barrie are not available because city police records group all Provincial Offence Notices for Highway Traffic Act (HTA) violations and don’t differentiate which section was violated, according to police.
Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act sets a default municipal speed limit of 50 km/h on streets within cities and other municipalities. But the HTA grants the city authority to set speed limits ranging from 40 to 80 km/h, in 10 km/h intervals.
The speed limit on most Barrie streets is 50 km/h, although it’s 60 km/h on some roads and 40 km/h in community safety zones at certain times of day.
School zones are designated road areas near a school, and typically occur within 150 metres of the front of a school and have reduced speed limits during specific periods of the day. City council policy mandates a 40 km/h posted speed limit in front of elementary schools, as well as for roadways where – due to their geometric design – there is an increased probability of danger when a car drives at 50 km/h or a higher speed limit.
On major roads where there are elementary schools, a ’40 km/h when flashing’ speed limit is in effect. Barrie has these speed limits – which follow varying time schedules – in 23 elementary school locations.
Community safety zones are established by municipal council through a bylaw, and cover road areas where there is a higher risk to, or concern for, drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and/or others who share the space. Highway Traffic Act fines, including speeding, are doubled in community safety zones and many community safety zones are located close to schools. Barrie has more than 75 sections of road designated as community safety zones in accordance with the community safety zones bylaw.
The city has a number of measures to limit speeds in Barrie, aside from police enforcement.
Each ward has speed bumps placed strategically to slow traffic, for example.
Last December, council passed a motion asking operations department staff to advise Toronto’s Joint Processing Centre that Barrie seeks to participate in the Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) program. It's a system that uses a camera and a speed measurement device to detect and capture images of vehicles travelling faster than the posted speed limit and is effective in reducing collisions in school and community safety zones.
Staff recommended a pilot program of two mobile cameras at an approximate cost of $70,000 to $80,000 annually. Implementing the ASE program could take as long as two years, or even longer, because of the number of steps in the process.
