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5 | W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,June 23,2022 w aterloochronicle.ca is backed by evidence that shows there's a better than 90 per cent chance of a pe- destrian surviving a colli- sion at 30 km/h, compared to just 50 per cent at 50 km/h. Drivers far exceed the current limits anyway, said Bill Carey, a retiree who's lived on the same street since 1974 and says traffic issues are far worse than they've ever been. "Maybe going to 30 (km/ h), maybe we'll get 40 or maybe 50 -- somewhere in that ballpark," he said. Carey warns that a co- ordinated approach is needed, noting the speed limits on Alexandra Ave- nue near Westmount Road are confusing and current- ly appear to have drivers going 50 km/h one way and 40 km/h in the other. The 50 km/h zone headed west on Alexandra Avenue starts about 150 metres before the stop sign at Westmount Road, which Casey finds odd and Gosset says only encourages drivers to speed up before they're out of the 40 km/h zone. Tommy Rakic, who was picking his kids up from Our Lady of Lourdes Cath- olic Elementary School on nearby Roslin Avenue, said he hopes the city's speed limit reduction covers the whole uptown neighbour- hood. "You're risking putting fast traffic down one street to alleviate another street," said Rakic, who fears cut- through traffic could be- come an even bigger issue. Coun. Tenille Bonogu- ore said Albert Street, con- sidered a class 3 collector road, would not be part of the speed limit reduction intended for residential streets. However she argues the narrow section between Bridgeport Road and Sea- gram Drive, which in- cludes many family homes and students, should be re- duced from 50 km/h to 40 km/h, as some other col- lectors would be under the new plan. Rakic believes the new speed limit will be difficult to enforce. "It's quite a big change; it's pretty drastic," he said. "I think it's going to be a long project and I think 40 would have been more ap- propriate to start." Overall, almost two- thirds (65 per cent) of resi- dents surveyed rejected the 30 km/h speed limit proposal, the majority opt- ing for either 40 km/h or sticking with the status quo. Fire services support- ed 40 km/h with 30 km/h school zones, as previously piloted in various neigh- bourhoods across the city. Staff recommended the same option because it sup- ports GRT routing, pro- vides a clear definition of school zones and is consis- tent with other municipal- ities in Ontario and Cana- da, including sister city Kitchener, which recently made the decision to re- duce the speed limit to 40 km/h on local residential roads. Traffic experts predict road rage and tailgating are more likely to occur with a 30 km/h limit. "We know that signs alone are not going to be the answer and we know that people will drive what they feel comfortable do- ing," Waterloo's manager of traffic engineering, Jenny Setterfield, told council. "In staff's opinion, we need to achieve slower speeds that are reasonable and still be able to imple- ment traffic calming mea- sures or other road safety measure on streets like Al- exandra in order to provide the geometrics to have it all work together." But Bonoguore said she heard loud and clear from her uptown constituents that 30 km/h was the way to go. Ward 2 Coun. Royce Bo- daly, who had championed the push to go to 30 km/h, helped persuade his coun- cil colleagues to make the "bold, more aggressive choice." Councillors Bodaly, Bonguore, Jeff Henry, Diane Freeman and Jen Vasic voted to lower speeds to 30 km/h. Opposed were Mayor Dave Jaworsky and councillors Angela Vieth and Sandra Hanmer. Changing the speed signs in Waterloo is expec- ted to take up to four years and cost more than $400,000. City transportation staff say education and en- forcement will play keys roles moving forward. Stricter stunt driving rules went into effect in Ontario last July. The cri- teria dropped from 50 km/h to 40 km/h or higher if the driver is operating the vehicle on a road that has a speed limit of less than 80 km/h. -- with files form the Waterloo Region Record STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Waterloo council recently voted to reduce the speed limit on residential streets to 30 km/h and the Chronicle followed up to see what residents think. NEWS Continued from page 3 'IT'S QUITE A BIG CHANGE; IT'S PRETTY DRASTIC' Local residential roads in Waterloo will all soon be signed 30 km/h, with the aim of improving safety and walkability. Metroland file photo