Kitchener considering lowering speed limits to 40 km/h in residential neighbourhoods

Looking to drop speed limits in neighbourhoods From CTV Kitchener’s Leighanne Evans: Kitchener City Council is looking to drop the speed limit in all residential neighbourhoods.

Kitchener — Kitchener city council is considering a recommendation to lower the speed limit in all residential neighbourhoods to 40 km/h.

City officials say speeding is one of the top issues residents in the community are concerned about.

"It's noticeable how fast people drive," said Kitchener resident Samantha Armstrong. "Kids are back in school right now and it's quite a robust neighbourhood. Aside from even school-aged children, there's a lot of pets in our neighbourhood as well. I always worry about dogs running across the street."

On Monday afternoon, a recommendation put forward to council outlined the benefits of reducing the speed limit to 40 km/h in residential areas and to 30 km/h in school zones.

"I think that's a great idea," said Kitchener resident Carmen Mazza. "It will save somebody's life."

The estimated budget for the project is $550,000, including $475,000 for signage and installation and $75,000 for engagement, communications and education.

Staff said city streets can be made safer for all road users.

"The severity or the likelihood of a pedestrian being involved in a fatal accident is increased from a 15 per cent survival rate to a 70 per cent survival rate if somebody is hit by a car travelling at 40 versus 50 km/h," said Aaron McCrimmon-Jones, Kitchener's manager of transportation and planning. "We don't have collision stats right now, it is something we'll track, but we do know the severity of collisions goes way down with lower speed limits."

Council will be asked to provide final approval for the proposal on Oct. 18.

The recommendation comes after last May's Neighbourhood Speed Limit Pilot Project, which cost the city about $550,000, with the majority of that money going to signage and installation.

"Visual signs really don't work nowadays anymore," said Mazza. "Speed bumps would work, it would slow more people down."

As part of the project, speed limits in the Huron, Doon South and Idlewood areas were reduced from 50 km/h to 40 km/h, and bumped down to 30 km/h in school zones.

The pilot project found drivers in those neighbourhoods slowed down one to 11 per cent of the time.

"In Pioneer Park, I know that there are some speed bumps, which I never thought I would recommend for my own neighbourhood, but now that I've been through Pioneer Park I actually think that would be a reasonable solution," said Armstrong.

The City of Guelph approved a similar initiave in July, followed by coucil voting to reduce speed limits on 12 aterial roads in the downtown core and on residential streets in 48 neighbourhoods.