Neighbours on Silurian Drive are frustrated and want the city to step up and do something about the speeding and many near-miss accidents on their street.
Sean Marshall has lived on Silurian Drive on the city's east side for eight years and it wasn’t until traffic calming measures on Starwood Drive were implemented that he noticed any changes.
Currently there are speed cushions and in-road flexible bollards on Starwood and permanent measures are scheduled to be installed.
Previously Silurian had natural traffic calming measures when cars were allowed to park on both sides of the street and it led to people slowing down, Marshall said.
He contacted the City of Guelph to see if anything could be done. The city emailed him collected traffic data on Silurian for 24 hours a day for seven days in October of last year. City staff confirmed the data was correct to GuelphToday.
Where Marshall lives on Silurian the street connects between Grange Road and Lee Street and the average daily traffic at the time of data collection was 689 vehicles. The average speed is 38 km/h and 85 per cent of the vehicles are travelling at or below 47 km/h.
“The data collected for Silurian indicates that traffic calming measures do not meet the criteria of the policy, however, we have implemented other tools to encourage drivers to slow down in that area; specifically reduced speed limits and radar boards,” said Liraz Fridman, road safety supervisor engineering and transportation services for the city, in an email to GuelphToday.
The policy she referred to is the traffic calming policy.
The city did implement a couple of measures at the intersection of Silurian and Lee after a city work request in 2020:
- Eastbound stop ahead sign on Lee Street
- 15 metre no parking anytime restriction on all corners to keep the intersection clear of parked vehicles to improve sightlines for drivers and pedestrians
- Secondary stop signs on left hand side of Lee Street at Silurian Drive, both directions
- Crosswalks, stop bars and centreline pavement markings for Lee Street at Silurian Drive, both directions
An all-way stop at the intersection did not meet the criteria to be considered. It would have been if just one of these criteria were met; minimum volume warrant, collision warrant and visibility warrant.
There was one recorded collision at the intersection in the last three years.
The Broccolo family who lives a couple doors down from Marshall would like to see an all way stop put in with larger sized stop signs they said would be an improvement from the current two way stop.
Antonio and Christina Broccolo have a four-year-old daughter Sofia and they are concerned about her safety. “We told her be careful. You can’t run here,” said Antonio.
To get to Holy Trinity Catholic School she has to walk on Silurian and cross to Lee. There are no stop signs in the direction she walks in.
During the school year there is usually a crossing guard at Lee and Silurian and when Christina noticed one day there wasn’t she called her daughter’s principal letting them know it wasn’t safe.
There is a pedestrian crosswalk there but it isn’t functional yet.
The Broccolos are also concerned with speeding on Silurian and think since there has been new development of homes down the street it has increased traffic. “I think they think this road is very long. So they want to hurry up and get home,” said Christina.
“And getting out of our driveway used to be no problem. Now people are coming so quickly honk,” she said.
They would like to see their city councillors come to the neighbourhood to see the problems they are dealing with on their street.
Marshall recalled walking his dogs near the Silurian and Lee intersection. Another man was crossing the street and a car blew through the stop sign. Marshall and others yelled “stop” and if they didn’t he thinks the man crossing the street would have been hit.
This is just one instance of many near miss collisions Marshall has witnessed on his block.
“Safety is predominantly a city-wide issue. I think there are probably many other neighbourhoods that are having these problems,” Marshall said.
The reason why Marshall feels so strongly about implementing traffic calming measures on his street is because a friend of his, Bruce Fowler was 79 when he died after crossing the road headed toward the Evergreen Seniors Centre and was struck by a car driven by an 85-year-old man.
The speed limit on Silurian is 40 km/h but Marshall’s neighbour Amanda Waddingham wouldn’t mind if the speed limit were lowered to 30 km/h.
There are speed radar boards in both directions on the road. Marshall thinks this measure has helped slow down drivers, or at least hopes it has.
“If they had of taken this a little seriously a while back I think we would not have ever have had this problem,” he said.
Waddingham thinks people driving through the traffic calming measures on Starwood are causing speeding on Silurian.
“It’s frustrating drivers and I think that’s why we’re getting more accidents. People are pissed off they had to slow down. They speed back up. They got to make up their time on the other roads and then they’re aggravated,” said Waddingham.
People drive on Silurian to avoid the traffic calming measures, she said.
She said a better solution would be instead of speed humps, flexible bollards instead and they “slow you down really well but it does not frustrate you.”
