In a meeting where speeding and traffic safety in general were already a big theme, Halton Hills Council gave the go ahead to implement traffic calming measures in certain areas of Glen Williams.
A staff report, discussed at council's July 4 meeting, recommends the use of both intrusive and non-intrusive measures to stem speeding that will be implemented next year, subject to 2023 budget approval.
Confederation Street will form the central spine of the district where the work will happen. Neighbourhoods on either side of the street will get several permanent asphalt speed bumps. These will be on Eighth Line, Main Street and Wildwood Road, along with Confederation.
A vehicle-activated speed sign will be placed on Eighth Line just north of Wildwood Road.
Staff is also recommending speed limit reductions to 40 km/h on Mountain, Forster and Tweedle streets, along with Glen Crescent Drive and Bennet Place.
Non-intrusive traffic calming measures tend to be found pretty much anywhere on any road. These are traffic signs, painted markings on the roads or pavement, even police silhouettes.
Intrusive measures are less common as they physically impair a driver’s ability to speed. Speed bumps are the best known form of intrusive traffic calming. Roundabouts, raised mediums and sidewalk extensions – where the sidewalk bulges into the road - are some of the measures in the traffic calming toolkit.
“During COVID, the problem (of speeding) was exacerbated,” resident Lyn Johannson said in her delegation to council.
She praised the use of speed bumps because “you just can’t fix stupid with a sign.”
She also presented findings of research she conducted on the topic to council. One piece of data that stood out was a graph that showed the dramatic increase of fatal injury at higher speeds.
“This graphic was certainly frightful, yet insightful,” she noted.
A 2011 study by the American think tank National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) lends credence to her statistics.
"The average risk of severe injury for a pedestrian struck by a vehicle reaches 10 per cent at an impact speed of 16 mph (25 km/h), 25 per cent at 23 mph (37 km/h), 50 per cent at 31 mph (50 km/h), 75 per cent at 39 mph (63 km/h), and 90 per cent at 46 mph (74 km/h),” the NACTO report said.
Kate Murray, who sits on the Glen Williams Community Association board of directors, drew attention to the problem of vehicle noise, which could benefit from decreased speeds.
“The Glen is an old community. Some of it, not all of it. Some of those houses are very close to these major roads where there are trucks, motorcycles, joy riders at 2 and 3 a.m… A great deal of noise that is disturbing to residents,” she said.