The City of Kitchener has launched a new year-long pilot project aimed at slowing down speedy drivers in three neighbourhoods in Huron Park.
The Safer, Slower Speeds project will see speed limits within the three designated areas slowed to 40 kilometres per hour while speed limits in school zones will be reduced to 30 kilometres per hour.
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The three zones the city designated for testing include:
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- An area bounded by Fischer-Hallman Road, Huron Natural Area and Huron Road
- An area bounded by Homer Watson Boulevard, Conestoga College Boulevard, New Dundee Road, Reidel Road, Caryndale Drive, Stauffer Drive, Tilts Bush and Schneider Greenway
- An area bounded by River Road East, Ottawa Street North, Lackner Boulevard and Fairway Road North
The city has already begun erecting signs at the entrances to the three neighbourhoods. The work will be completed in early December.
According to the city, speeding is one of the top concerns for local residents, which prompted a study of collisions in Kitchener over the past five years.
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It says the study determined reducing speeds would cut down on the number of fatalities from collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists.
“The public safety benefits of lower speeds are very well documented,” Kitchener’s manager of transportation planning, Aaron McCrimmon-Jones, said in a statement. “The question is how to achieve lower average speeds in the areas where collisions between vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists are most common.
“That’s why we landed on the approach of testing lower limits in residential neighbourhoods.”