New speed limit guidelines could eventually mean life in the slow lane for some Puslinch residents.
On March 7, councillor Wayne Stokely said “the guidelines suggest all gravel roads be posted at 60km per hour.” He wondered about the public works committee’s response to that suggestion.
Stokely said he had seen no recommendation as part of the public works committee report.
Public works superintendent Don Creed had tested a number of roads against the guidelines. He said, “That is the general consensus of what is going to come out. Every gravel road in the township will come out at 60km/hr.”
Creed asked what council wants to do with that information. He asked if council wants to change all the roads at once, or deal with them individually.
“Obviously concerns need to run through the public works committee to be looked at. Any recommendations would come from that committee.”
Stokely suggested that be addressed at the committee level for a recommendation to council.
“If the guidelines recommend 60km/hr … We’ve talked about it before and now we have new information.”
Councillor Jerry Schmidt said the consensus of the committee was to look at speed limit requests separately.
“There are an awful lot of ramifications associated with the decision.”
He added there is additional work in determining what the actual speed limits should be.
Mayor Dennis Lever said “There has been a lot of interest in the speed limit for gravel roads, and I would like to see a recommendation of how the committee is hoping to address this.”
Schmidt said the reality is more than one request has been sent to council for speed limit changes.
“The committee is not ignoring this, but because of the amount of data coming in, it was best to look at it individually.” He said circumstances vary “and we can’t tar them all with the same brush and come up with the same results. There is no sense causing inconvenience for drivers on roads that can tolerate a higher speed limit.”
Councillor Susan Fielding said it seems as if she was getting mixed messages. If the Canadian guidelines are suggesting gravel roads should be posted at 60km/hr, “I would favor doing something for all the roads. With these guidelines, we are tarring them all with the same brush.”
