WELLINGTON COUNTY – Wellington County council deferred a new speed management guideline until there is a better idea of how they will be used.
On Thursday, council was not ready to support the data-driven study because of uncertainty of how it will impact speed limits and therefore residents.
Roads committee chair Andy Lennox explained the guiding documents of the Roads Master Action Plan (RMAP), a large-scale plan in development looking to improve county roads and address resident traffic complaints, were the subject of a long debate at this month’s committee meeting.
Lennox said there was a broad agreement on the vision and goals but the speed management guidelines and results of two case studies split the committee in approving this to go to council.
The guidelines lay out a process for evaluating resident complaints on speeding through data-driven decision making.
For example, the report notes the strongest influence on a driver’s travel speed is the physical appearance of a road rather than the posted speed limit. The general suggestion is to set the speed limit at what a majority of drivers travel at which leads to safer roads.
In the case studies on Wellington Road 32 in Puslinch and Wellington Road 124 in Erin, both roads that have been subject to delegations from residents urging council to take action on speeding, recommendations would raise the speed limit based on data.
This idea of comparing data against residents’ concerns became the sticking point at the committee and carried on into council as well.
Lennox stressed these guidelines will not change speed limits but are a tool for council to make these kinds of decisions.
“It’s based on the data-driven practice for the types of roads the county network was designed for,” Lennox said.
“County roads have been established to be arterial or connecting-type roads and to function primarily to facilitate the movement of people and goods including heavy traffic. The guidelines do consider the context of what the road segments are in whether urban, rural or some variation in between.”
Many on council agreed having guidelines are a good tool to explain to residents the thought process behind how speed limits are set but aren’t necessarily reflective of actions council will take.
“We’re telling staff ‘here are the guidelines we’d like you to use and the data we have available to us’ but also be aware just because the data may say that, there may be other circumstances that would deem us to have different options,” said coun. Don McKay.
Puslinch mayor James Seeley said he appreciated McKay’s view but also noted the difficulty of going against a staff recommendation which may be at odds over what constituents want.
“Now if we adopt these guidelines and we have these hamlets and low-kilometre speed limit zones and they punch the numbers into these guidelines and it spits it out that it has to go to 70 from 50 (km/hr)...you’re going to have to rally nine individuals around this horseshoe to go against staff,” Seeley said.
Coun. Mary Lloyd stressed they serve the public who elected them to stand up for things that are concerning to them.
“If we are only driven by reports and not driven by what our public would like us to do as well, then we are going to miss the mark,” Lloyd said.
Mapleton Mayor Gregg Davidson asked for clarification if the intent of the guidelines is to raise the speed limits.
County engineer Don Kudo replied that it is a process to review complaints and do not speak to increasing speed limits on county roads.
Guelph/Eramosa mayor Chris White said he wasn’t sure if this problem could ever be fully resolved but guidelines in place takes away some of the politics involved in speed limits.
He said he doesn’t believe the report is directing raising speed limits but the implication hangs over the guidelines.
Council agreed to defer this pending review of how the guidelines will be implemented.
