The threshold for installing traffic-calming measures along city streets is set to become more lenient.
Although council voted against the move two weeks ago, councillors Jay Fallis and Jeff Czetwerzuk successfully reversed their colleagues’ feelings on the idea at Monday’s meeting.
“What this would be doing is adjusting the qualifications required for traffic-calming measures to be implemented after a petition is submitted,” explained Fallis. “The necessary requirements, essentially, for traffic calming to be implemented would be reduced.”
The idea originated from an inquiry motion brought forward by the two councillors earlier this year, when Fallis highlighted that, out of six neighbourhood petitions requesting traffic-calming measures in recent years, none have qualified under the city’s current points system.
Traffic calming includes physical measures meant to reduce the negative effects of traffic, and the city’s policy considers the 85th percentile speed, traffic volume, short-cutting traffic, collisions, sidewalk presence, and more in its traffic-calming review process, which weighs the need for traffic calming through a points-based system.
With council’s approval Monday, the points required for traffic-calming measures will be reduced to 25 for local roads and 40 for collector roads — down from 35 and 52 points, respectively.
“Six petitions have come forward and none of them met the requirements, and we know some of those roads do have some noted issues on them,” said Czetwerzuk.
“We're hopeful this allows for some more flexibility within the policy and to get some more traffic calming on our roads. It doesn't mean that every petition coming forward is going to get traffic calming and a budget ask, but allows some flexibility.”
In their original report to council, city staff argued against making the traffic-calming policy more lenient — a stance that was reiterated Monday.
Staff benchmarked the city’s points-based system against 12 other municipalities, including Barrie, London, Bracebridge and Vaughan, with seven of them using similar points-based metrics to determine whether traffic-calming measures are warranted.
All benchmarked municipalities with fewer than 100,000 residents used a similar points-based system, with city staff recommending against making the system more lenient or reducing the number of points needed to meet the threshold for traffic calming.
Aside from the city’s traffic-calming policy, staff noted residents also have the ability to implement traffic-calming measures through Ontario Regulation 586/06, Local Improvement Charges.
Despite staff’s position, and council’s initial vote against the move two weeks ago, Czetwerzuk and Fallis managed to garner enough votes in favour of the idea as council’s original decision was set for ratification Monday.
