King’s speed limit reduction a ‘good thing,’ resident says

Township reduces speed limit to 40 km/h on urban local streets

Laura Broadley
Yorkregion.com
June 14, 2021

Things are about to slowdown in King Township.

Council decided to lower the speed limits on urban local streets from 50 km/h to 40 km/h.

“I feel it would be a good thing. I think it will have an impact so long as it is enforced appropriately,” said Loreen Teoli. “I don’t see any reason to have it more than 40 km/h in this town.”

Teoli moved to King 27 years ago where she and her family have noticed the busy traffic.

“I’ve witnessed a few accidents that have taken place at high speeds and they’re really devastating,” she said.

Several of Teoli’s neighbours have young children and she fears that they may be hurt if drivers are going too fast.

Teoli recently had hip surgery and she said she’s afraid of walking across the street at the crosswalk because she doesn’t know if drivers are going to stop.

“They’re just going too fast,” she said. “It isn’t pedestrian friendly.”

Teoli thinks it would be a good idea for police to enforce the new speed limits regularly, at least in the beginning, to get drivers used to the idea of a 40 km/h limit.

“If people see 50 km/h, they’ll do 60 km/h. If people see 40 km/h, they’ll do 50 km/h,” Teoli said. “I think enforcement initially would be extremely important as well as public education.”

The speed limit decrease was the result of a traffic calming strategy completed in November. One of the strategy's key recommendations was the default speed limit on all local and collector roads be reduced to 40 km/h. The idea is that a uniform reduction of speed limits will provide a consistent message to drivers to slow down in residential areas.

“Speed calming is one of the major issues,” said King Mayor Steve Pellegrini.

Council also approved a speed reduction on 19th Sideroad after a safety review endorsed the speed limit to be reduced from 50 km/h to 40 km/h due to the road’s numerous vertical and horizontal curves.

“Speaking with the police, they are very pleased with our choice to go with 40 km/h because everything under 50 km/h, the impact on a human, the chances of survival are much higher,” Pellegrini said. “As speed is reduced, injuries reduce as well. At the end of the day that’s what it’s all about, ensuring the safety of our residents.”

Township staff determined there were 206 road segments that needed to be revised in order to adhere to the 40 km/h speed reduction requirement throughout the township.

The township will implement the speed reduction by posting signage with “40 km/h begins” and “40 km/h ends” at the neighbourhood entrance locations where urban local and collector roads are intersecting with arterial or rural roads.

For more information on traffic calming, go to www.king.ca/trafficcalming.