A new 40km/h zone and a noise bylaw exemption were a few of the items discussed at the May 4 Guelph-Eramosa council meeting.
Conservation Road
Council approved a reduction in speed limit from 50km/h to 40km/h on Conservation Road between Highway 6 and Hamilton Drive.
Residents along conservation submitted a request for the reduction in 2014. Though the established township procedures to evaluate whether a speed reduction was warranted were not met, director of public works Harry Niemi said that in this specific case, because of the slope of the hill, vertical alignment and stopping sight distances, the speed reduction was recommended.
The concern turned to enforcement.
“We create the speed limit but we’re not out there, councillors aren’t out there ticketing people, that’s the OPP’s job,” councillor Corey Woods said. “Sometimes trying to get the OPP out there to enforce it is a challenge.”
Mayor Chris White suggested using county “speed spies.”
“They mount them on a post or a tree, so they’re getting actual true speeds, because when you put a cruiser to do speeds you’ve got a cop there you’ve got a sign … it’s there but it’s not necessarily real,” he explained. “So with the speed spy, it lasts two days until the battery goes and so … people don’t see a cop, they’re travelling what they’re travelling.”
He said this could show the OPP that speeding is occurring and they’ll know they need to enforce the speed limit.
“We do some studies, get them to the OPP and come back, so we’ll monitor this,” White said.
The speed reduction is now in effect.
Eighth Line East
Council also received a request for a speed reduction on the Eighth Line East at the south end of the road immediately north of Wellington Road 86. However, after evaluating the township procedures for speed limit reduction Niemi reported that no reduction from the current 80km/h speed limit is warranted.
