'What if it had been a child?': Newmarket resident wants speeding addressed

Driver takes out McBean Ave. fire hydrant, sparks local resident to consider asking town to stop the speeding

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 9, 2019
Yorkregion.com

What if it had been a child or a pet?

It was the first thought that crossed the mind of Kimberly Perdue when she took her dog outside for a walk on a Sunday morning only to find the York Regional Police investigating a detached hydrant and vehicle bumper left on the curb across the street from their McBean Avenue home.

“Speeding is a common concern on our street,” her husband Brian Perdue said. “We have lived here 20 years and it has progressively gotten worse and worse.”

Two side streets funnel onto McBean Avenue, giving drivers access to Bayview Avenue, a major corridor in town. Speeding, coupled with distracted driving, has caused concern for the Perdues. as well as others on the street.

“We have a lot of young children in the neighbourhood and people need to slow down before something serious happens,” he added. “What if it had been a child? We are always worried someone is going to get hurt.”

York police confirm the hit-and-run involving the hydrant was investigated, the driver found and charged with failing to remain, fail to report and careless driving. The police could not confirm if the careless driving was specifically related to speeding.

“We wish the town would consider putting in speed bumps to slow down drivers,” he said.

Town of Newmarket engineering director Rachel Prudhomme confirmed the town receives a steady stream of speed mitigation requests during the summer months due to residents being home more often.

“It’s pretty standard for us to get one request a month,” she said. “But there is a process to make such a request.”

To make a request for traffic-calming measures, residents must submit a petition to their ward councillor, regional councillor or mayor to be presented at a committee of the whole meeting. The town requires the petition to have 25 per cent support or more from the households on that street, with a minimum number of 10 households interested in considering a change to traffic-calming measures.
Following the request, council may direct town staff to distribute a survey to the affected households, of which half must respond with 60 per cent of responses positive for the process to continue, otherwise the process ends.

If the process moves on, town experts would measure the volume and speed on the street with cable counters; small, black tubes laid across the road to see how many speeding incidents occur in a seven-day period.

“If the incidents are consistent, we would implement what we call category one speed measures like bollards, lawn signs, enforcement and education, pavement markings and radar speed boards that display the speed vehicles are travelling and send data back to us,” Prudhomme said.

If those measures fail to slow traffic, a raised median with a crosswalk -- like the one on Water Street at Riverwalk Commons -- or pinch points (strategically narrowing the street at specific spots) would be installed.

The town avoids the controversial speed hump since it tends to lead to people speeding after to make up lost time, hinders emergency vehicle response times by 10 seconds per hump, are expensive to install and maintain, and are hard on vehicle shocks.

The town is in the process of constructing a portion of Lorne Avenue from Davis Drive to Eagle Street to be a traffic-calming demonstration showpiece, she said. A variety of measures will be installed along the street and will be electronically monitored to collect data to see what calming measures are the most efficient and cost effective.

The construction of the project is expected to be fully complete by 2022.

For full instructions of how to request traffic calming, stop sign and other related reviews, visit Newmarket.ca and search traffic monitoring requests.