Council tentatively approves reduced speed limits, automated speed enforcement cameras

Guelph chould be seeing reduced speed limits in 48 neighbourhoods and 12 arterial roads in the near future.

City council tentatively approved the changes, part of an updated traffic bylaw, at its committee of the whole meeting Monday night.

The speed limit will be dropping from 50 km/h to 40 km/h in residential neighbourhoods and sections of Downtown Guelph that aren’t already 40 km/h.

Speed limits would also be reduced by 10 km/h on 12 arterial roads.

The updated traffic bylaw update coming to council in September.

It may take into 2023 to post all the new signs needed, staff told council.

Council also tentatively approved the purchase of four mobile automated speed enforcement cameras that will be moved to a different part of the city every one or two months. Typically the cameras would be placed in community safety zones and school zones.

These cameras automatically record speeding violations and send the ticket to the owner of the vehicle.

If approved they would be in place in the third quarter of 2023.

Staff had recommended two cameras.

The purchase of these cameras still has to be approved in the 2022 budget and both the new speed limits and cameras need to be confirmed at the full meeting of council July 21. 

Steve Anderson, manager of traffic engineering with the city, presented that there is a collision in Guelph every 230 minutes, one person is injured in a collision every nine hours and one pedestrian and one cyclist is involved in a collision every 10 days.

Reduced speed limits saves lives and reduces injuries, he told council.

Delegate James Bryson told council that even cars doing the speed limit in some neighbourhood pose a danger.

“Young families like mine, we just want to not have to constantly worry about our kids being hit by cars that are technically doing the speed limit, but it’s too fast for residential streets,” Bryson said.

Bryson wanted 30 km/h limits in residential neighbourhoods. An amendment was put forward by Coun. Rodrigo Goller that would have seen such a reduction in neighbourhoods, but it failed by a 3-9 vote.

Anderson said that the reductions in neighbourhoods would start at 40 km/h and then monitored and evaluated over the next few years.

“Just posting 30 km/h right away has a negligible impact,” Anderson said. “We might just have to take a measured step here.”