County of Brant Council received a staff report in regards to a traffic by-law amendment that would lower the speed limit on various residential roads to 40 km/h during their Administration and Operations meeting on Tuesday, October 15, 2024.
The report noted that since the Brant Safe Streets (BSS program) first began in 2019, County staff have received approximately 600 requests/concerns associated with speeding and aggressive driving within the County. Even before the BSS program existed, the County of Brant continuously received concerns regarding motorists’ speeds and driver behaviors.
During last Tuesday’s meeting, Greg Demers, the County’s director of roads, explained to the councillors that because the provincial government passed Bill 65, the Safe School Zone Act, on May 30, 2017, it has since allowed municipalities to pass a by-law to set a speed limit less than 50 km/h for all roads within a designated area.
He said that if the by-law amendment is approved, himself and his staff are looking to implement a 40 km/h speed limit for various local and minor collector roads throughout the county.
“Why we’re looking at neighbourhoods is because that’s where people are out playing street hockey, walking their dogs, crossing roads and going to local parks, stuff like that,” said Demers. “What we’re doing here is in line with what other municipalities are doing, and this also aligns with our Transportation Master Plan that’s also been previously approved by Council.”
The following neighbourhood/local areas proposed for the program are as follows:
Paris Neighbourhoods (15 areas)
- Balmoral Street area
- Bradbury Crescent area
- Broadway Street area
- Capron Street area
- Cedar Street area
- Cobblestone Drive area
- Daugaard Avenue area
- Dundas Street West area
- Market Street – south east area
- Market Street – south west area
- Mile Hill Road area
- Oak Avenue area
- Paris District Highschool area
- Walnut Street area.
Scotland Neighbourhoods (four areas)
Augustus Court area, Queen Street South area, Queen Street area and Royal Troon Drive area.
Oakland Neighbourhoods (two areas)
Oakland Road area and Walter Street area
Mount Pleasant Neighbourhoods (two areas)
Bernice Street area and Russell Street area
Burford Neighbourhoods (eight areas)
Alexander Street area, Elizabeth Avenue area, Highland Drive area, John Street area, Melissa Avenue area, Minshall Drive area, Park Avenue area, Smith Street area and Saint William Street area.
Oakhill Neighbourhood (one area)
Oakhill Drive area
Glen Morris Neighbourhoods (five areas)
Deer Run Court area, Glen Morris West area, Glen Morris area, Meadowood Drive area and Scenic Drive area.
St George Neighbourhoods (five areas)
Harrisburg Drive area, High Street area, Highgate Drive area, Sunnyside Drive area and Victor Boulevard area
Onondaga Neighbourhood (one area)
Painter Road area
Middleport Neighbourhood (one area)
Middleport Road area
Cainsville Area (not on map)
Blossom Ave – Brant County Road 18 to Colborne Street East, (a 40 km/hr. speed limit already exists).
While the term “area” has been used to describe which neighbourhoods will undergo the change, more detailed maps indicating which streets, can be found here: https://pub-brant.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=65079
As well, Demers said that in order to physically communicate to residents where the 40 km/h areas begin and end, staff would use gateway signage, mounted front and back, at the entrance and exit of each neighbourhood area.
“When we roll the program out and we actually start putting the signs in place, it’ll be very easy for people to follow,” said Demers. “We’ll have the 50 km/h out on the main roads and then as you turn into these neighbourhoods, there will be gateway signs that say 40 km/h road, and then as you leave those there’ll be signs saying that you’ve left the area.”
He added that because installing the signs takes time and money, staff were recommending that implementation of the new speed limit take place over the course of three years. He said that this would also give staff the chance to monitor data in regards to how motorists’ are responding to the new limit.
“Whenever we’ve implemented big changes here, there’s always been pushback or ideas will come back to us and so we want to have the flexibility to get feedback after the initial phase,” said Demers. “What we’re trying to do is phase this in by 15 per cent [in 2025] and if it goes well and we get good feedback, then the following year we’ll do the next 35 per cent which means that half the county will be done. At that time we can just plough through and do the last 50 per cent [in 2027]. “Because the roads department has a small amount of staff and this is an additional program, we want to use that first 15 per cent to get it right, get everyone’s feedback, and then we can move forward. I think it’s a good way to approach a large program like this, because there’ll be a lot of communication with the public.”
The proposed areas/zones for the first signs to be installed in 2025 are as follows:
Paris Neighbourhoods
Broadway Street area, Cobblestone Drive area and Paris District High School area
Scotland Neighbourhood
Augustus Court area
Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood
Russell Street area
Burford Neighbourhoods
Alexander Street area and Park Avenue area
Oakhill Neighbourhood
Oakhill Drive area
Glen Morris Neighbourhood
Glen Morris West area and Glen Morris area
St. George Neighbourhood
Victor Boulevard area
During the question and answer period, Councillor Lukas Oakley noted that with statistics from the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals indicating a “further 30 per cent reduction in fatalities” when speed limits are posted at 30 km/h, he asked that if they’re making the change anyway, why not take the extra step down to 30 km/h for extra safety measures.
Having read the same statistic, Demers said that it can be difficult to maintain a 30 km/h speed but that after the first year, if the Council wanted to investigate reducing the speed limit even further, staff could do so.
“I’m approaching that with caution. What I’d like to do is implement this over the next three years, and see how it works for the county in our school zones,” he said. “…In speaking with my colleagues in other municipalities that have implemented it [30 km/h speed limit], they’re getting a lot of pushback because 30 km/h is quite hard to achieve on a regular basis and the residents aren’t happy. We’ll see how this program goes and then if the Council wants us to further investigate 30 km/h, we would do that and bring that back to the Council.”
The recommendation was then later carried on a vote of 6-1, noting that Mayor David Bailey and Councillors John MacAlpine, Steve Howes, and Robert Chambers were not present for the vote.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
