The following article appeared in the August 28 edition of the Guelph Tribune:
The city is planning to test a new type of traffic calming device as part of ongoing efforts to reduce speeds and decrease the amount of traffic short-cutting through neighbourhoods.
“Speed cushions,” which recently came onto the market, are made of rubberized material and are temporarily attached to the road surface. They’re similar to speed humps, but are designed to have less impact on larger vehicles such as fire trucks and on the response times of emergency vehicles, a new city hall staff report says.
The devices will be placed early this fall on Cassino Avenue at four spots between Victoria Road and Stevenson Street. They are not suitable for winter use in this climate, so they’ll be temporarily removed for the winter months and replaced in the spring.
Staff plan to report to council on the results of the pilot project in early 2008. Until then, they’ll monitor the impact that the speed cushions have on traffic speeds and volume on Cassino. They’ll also get feedback from residents and city departments.
The city’s operations department decided to try the devices after being approached in July by a group of Cassino residents eager for some sort of interim traffic calming measures on their street while they wait for a formal traffic management review. Cassino is currently fifth on a waiting list for such a review, and a review isn’t scheduled for it
until late 2008.
City council adopted a traffic neighbourhood management policy in 1998, the same year that speed humps were put on Dufferin Street – which remains the only street in Guelph where they are used.
The policy has been revised several times. At one time, as an interim measure, all-way stop controls were installed on several streets waiting for a formal review. However, the use of all-way stops as an interim measure was removed from the city’s policy in January 2006, when some changes were made to the policy to streamline the process and improve
community involvement.
In May 2005, council narrowly voted to keep speed humps and other so-called “vertical” traffic calming measures in the neighbourhood traffic management policy. By a 7-6 vote, it rejected a committee recommendation to eliminate all vertical measures – which some people with disabilities view these measures as barriers – from the policy. Public concerns about traffic safety are increasing, as is the popularity of traffic calming, says the new staff report.
However, public processes under the city’s policy take a long time, and the report says nine residential areas in Guelph are either actively engaged in such a process or waiting to undertake one. Staff are finishing three public consultation processes and are working on
establishing a traffic management plan for a fourth neighbourhood. Meanwhile, five streets are waiting for reviews to start, with Cassino at the bottom of the list.