Community council set to vote on reducing speed limits on residential streets

WATCH ABOVE: A change in speed limit from 40 km/hr to 30 km/hr on 387 kilometres of roads will be debated by Toronto city councillors. Mark McAllister reports.

TORONTO – Drivers in East York and the downtown core could soon face slower speeds in residential neighbourhoods.

The Toronto and East York Community Council is set to meet Monday evening and could vote on lowering the speed limit from 40km/hr to 30km/hr on some residential streets.

Toronto Mayor John Tory said that although he supports the meeting, he doesn’t think there is “one solution that is going to address the problem in its entirety or address it completely effectively.”

“I hope they will have a good discussion but I hope they will adopt an approach that is effective in the broadest sense as opposed to just being a broad blanket, cover all solution,” he said.

“I would rather see us use community safety zones and targeted measures and things like that to address it, including a big effort on public awareness.”

Denzil Minnan-Wong, Councillor for Ward 34 Don Valley East, said he doesn’t think the speed limit changes are necessary.

“The police have trouble enforcing the speed limits right now as it is and to try and get 30 km/h through, I don’t think is something that is enforceable and I think it creates a safety problem when people have an expectation that cars are going to go 30 km/h, and there’s no enforcement,” he said, adding that most accidents occur on major arterial roads and that speed may not be the only factor.

“There have been an increase in the number of accidents that have occurred and everyone’s using their cellphone now. Is it because people aren’t paying attention? Pedestrians aren’t paying attention? Let’s look at the real problems instead of this wholesale reduction of speed limits that I think are going to make a lot of people angry.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: <span style="line-height:1.5;">"There have been an increase in the number of accidents that have occurred and everyone's using their cellphone now. Is it because people aren't paying attention? Pedestrians aren't paying attention? Let's look at the real problems instead of this wholesale reduction of speed limits that I think are going to make a lot of people angry."</span>

Councillor Mike Layton, for Ward 19 Trinity-Spadina, said he doesn’t see why it would be tougher to enforce at a lower speed limit, as police would have an easier job of spotting speeders on roads with low speed limits.

“How likely is it for a cop to give out a ticket for going 50km/h in a 40 km/h zone, even if we know that the probability of fatality is enormously higher?” he said.

“This is about safety. Every 10 km/h that you reduce the speed limit or the speed of the car, the likelihood of fatality enormously drops.”

Community councils can set speed limits on local roads, but they need approval from Toronto council to fund the project.

City Council has estimated the pricetag for changing road signs and traffic signals is $1.1 million and would affect almost 387 km of local roads.

“If it’s about saving a life or two are we really going to start putting little price tags on that?” said Layton, adding that the cost of the measure will be discussed at the meeting tonight. “If we’re improving public safety? No.”

Councillor Shelley Carroll for Ward 33 Don Valley East, said many people are making the decision to lower speed limits “emotionally,” but there is a lot of traffic science behind the decision.

“What happens is, when you reduce the speed on the local road everyone begins to use roads for their designated purpose. You get on an artery if you want to go 60 km/h, you go on the local road if you’ve got a local purpose there,” she said, adding that drivers will try to circumvent traffic on arteries by speeding through local roads.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "What happens is, when you reduce the speed on the local road everyone begins to use roads for their designated purpose. You get on an artery if you want to go 60 km/h, you go on the local road if you've got a local purpose there," she said, adding that drivers will try to circumvent traffic on arteries by speeding through local roads.

“What that does in fact is start to gum up the works and slow down the whole journey for everyone. It doesn’t really help us if we’re really trying to make sure that everyone gets to work on time. You want to get to work on time you’ll do whatever you want but over time you really do screw up the trip for you and everyone else.”

In a report, city transportation staff warned reducing the speed limits could be ineffective and could result in a wide variation in driving speeds.

Councillor Josh Matlow first suggested reducing speed limits in residential areas, after seven-year-old Georgia Walsh was struck and killed by a van in Leaside last summer.

‘We all still know what we’re talking about when we mention the name of little Georgia Walsh, but in actual fact there are very few fatalities,” said Carroll.

“This was a terrible circumstance, but a rare one on a local road.”

The meeting is being held at City Hall Monday at 6 p.m. with local residents expected to attend to provide input.

*With files from Adam Miller and Mark McAllister