Waterloo councillor drives neighbourhoods at 30 km/h to show impact to commute
Royce Bodaly, councillor for Ward 2, supports lower speed limits
Waterloo Coun. Royce Bodaly recently jumped in his car with his daughter in the passenger's seat filming as he drove slowly through neighbourhoods.
Bodaly says he wanted to show people the impact on their commute if they drop 30 km/h versus 50 km/h.
This is his first term as a councillor and he says the number one issue he hears from residents is traffic speeds, particularly in residential areas.
"I wanted to highlight to folks that although this isn't the be all, end all solution to all of our traffic woes in the neighborhoods, it can certainly be a part of the solution," Bodaly says of his support of dropping the speed limit.
Council is expecting a speed management report later this year and they will need to decide how to handle traffic concerns. He says it's already anticipated that report will recommend dropping speed limits to 40 km/h.
But Bodaly says society seems to accept people driving 10 to 15 km/h over the speed limit, so dropping it to 30 km/h would keep people under 50 km/h. He added slower speeds would mean improved outcomes when there are collisions between vehicles, or when cyclists or pedestrians are involved.
I drove 30 on Ward 2 <a href="https://twitter.com/citywaterloo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@citywaterloo</a> streets to see how much slower it was. Check out why I think we should go to 30 in this video series.<br><br>1/6 - What's the difference between 50, 40 & 30 on survival rates?<a href="https://twitter.com/ClairHills?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ClairHills</a> are safe streets worth 22 secs off your commute?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VisionZero?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VisionZero</a> <a href="https://t.co/o8MY4Oivoy">pic.twitter.com/o8MY4Oivoy</a>
—@RoyceBodaly'Right direction'
On April 19, council approved a new transportation master plan. As part of that, staff were asked to look at the option of posting a 30 km/h speed limit for specific residential roads.
Council approved a special extension of the "slow streets" pilot for the Uptown West neighbourhood and along part of Waterloo Street.
The pilot will see knock-down signs in the middle of the road with the word "slow" on them. The city says the signs will become part of its existing seasonal traffic calming program.
Uptown Councillor Tenille Bonoguore wrote on her website that after doing some research, she also supports dropping speed limits to 30 km/h.
"That won't happen overnight. Once council does set a new speed limit — be it 30km/h or 40km/h — it will still take time to roll this out," she said, but added the slow streets pilot shows the city is "going in the right direction."