One of the most common things I hear at the door is about speed in Ward 2. I could talk for hours about the structural challenges that have led us to where we are today as well the perceptional issues that also exist. But let’s dig in on a potential solution!

Before we talk about where we are going, let’s look at where we have come:

In the last year, since I was elected, this is how the map has changed.

Speedhumps/straddles around the roundabout approach Sandwich Town roundabout; 3 new digital speed signs; bollards on Matchett approaching Chappell; 4 school speed zones reducing speeds to 40km per hour; a road diet at Tecumseh and Felix and a new Pedestrian crossover on University Ave at Gateway Park/Mason Education Centre opening any day now.

As was moved by Coun. Gary Kaschak we will be deliberating lowering all speed limits on residential streets to 40km per hour as part of the budget process this year. I support this blanket reduction!

What are the next steps beyond this? Well we have a temporary traffic calming budget for some incremental changes year to year.

This budget as I understand it is actually two parts:

• First if the Expedited Temporary Budget of $15,000 per wards that can be used for signage, paint, bollards etc. not structural changes to the roads. This ends next year and likely need to be extended.
• The second part is funding more permanent traffic calming measures that are justified under the traffic calming policy. This requires speed studies, petitions and then implementation in order of submission. There is currently months long backlog to get these studies and petitions done meaning on a few roads gets done each year.

But beyond this, I asked a Council Question in February:

That Administration report back to the Environment, Transportation and Public Safety Committee on the incremental cost differences of including permanent traffic calming measures as part of the local and residential road rehabilitation and repair project and programs. As part of this report, a scan of comparable municipalities traffic calming strategies on residential and local roads and their funding mechanisms should be included. Finally, the report should include the development of a framework to identify the types of traffic calming strategies that would be appropriate for these roads considering the types of rehabilitations/reconstruction that are planned annually

So what does this mean?

Well when this report comes back to council, likely before end of year, it could put us in a position to automatically include traffic calming in road projects as they are being implemented which could be funded out of the existing road repair and improvement budgets.

In 2026 we spent about $36 million on road repair and rehab. A typical mill and pave for a block or two section of street comes out about $150,000-$300,000. Larger reconstruction project on residential roads can run in the $1-$3 million range. If we were able to set aside one to two road projects per year. We could likely fully fund the traffic calming needs of every other eligible road project across the whole City at no additional costs. Given a speedhump is about $10,000 or ~$50,000-$75,000 for a tabled intersection. As part of broader reconstruction of curbs and sidewalks, an extra $12,000 pays for the engineering, design and installation of a bump-out at an intersection to narrow the crosswalk so pedestrians can more easily cross and lower turning speeds. I would be willing to give up a project to make sure my other projects got traffic calmed.

This will mean that year over year, we would incrementally add to our traffic calming network across the City. This year in Ward 2: College, South and Peter were reconstructed. With Mill and Paves on Wyandotte and Campbell. Ward 2 could have looked like this today:

The Wyandotte and Campbell projects likely wouldn’t not have been eligible for significant calming due to the traffic volumes and bus routes. But College, Peter and South could have seen some combination of road diets, speed humps/bumps, bump outs and potentially more. In addition to this incremental process, regular traffic calming processes would continue as warranted and the existing temporary measures will be deploy to target hotspots and change. As projects come up in the queue like Girardot (from Prince to Brock) which is in the capital budget for new sewers and road in 2029. We could now plan ahead and talk as a neighbourhood about what the vision is, what is possible given the road’s make up and project design and do proper pre-assessments on speed, traffic and other indicators to determine what types of calming are warranted.

To sum up

For the cost of delaying 1 or 2 road projects per year, for only a year, we could incrementally increase permanent and design traffic calming across the whole City. No new tax levy required. At the same time, our current program of data driven calming processes and temporary measures would continue.

Later this week as part of my full platform, I will have more on traffic calming and other stuff, including how we might be able to stop cars at Stop signs again. So check back!