Peterborough council agrees to lower speed limits around schools

Signs to be added but enforcement is key, says Parnell.

Thestar.com
June 6, 2023
Joelle Kovach

The speed limits along roads where there are schools in Peterborough will likely be lowered soon to 40 kilometres per hour, and in some cases to 30 km/h.

"I do believe this is very proactive," said Coun. Alex Bierk at a committee meeting Monday.

"To (city) staff: congratulations. This is long overdue," said Coun. Kevin Duguay.

Councillors gave preliminary approval to this new staff recommendation at the committee meeting Monday, on a unanimous vote.

The approval is preliminary: it needs a final vote at a city council meting on June 26 to be a done deal.

The idea is to create school safety zones around all of Peterborough’s 30 elementary and secondary schools.

In these zones, the speed limit -- generally 50 km/h, in the city -- would be reduced to 40 km/h when the school is on an arterial road, and to 30 km/h when the school is on a local road or low-capacity collector.

The zones would be marked with new signage.

Coun. Lesley Parnell said that enforcement of the speed limit will be key.

She said that in her ward, some areas around schools with lowered speed limits -- even with flashing lights -- don't necessarily stop all motorists from speeding.

Those roads "are still speedways" unless there is police enforcement, she said.

Coun. Keith Riel said that until there is photo radar, people will still speed.

But Coun. Joy Lachica said that lowering speed limits is needed -- even though it may not be a solution for all speeding.

"No, signs (indicating lowered speed limits) won't solve everything -- but it's a beginning," she said.

Meanwhile councillors are also interested in installing additional road safety treatments -- pavement markings, traffic delineators and electronic driver feedback signs, for instance -- around five different school areas in the city (one in each of the city’s wards) as a pilot project.

The idea is to see whether the additional measures help decrease speed in those areas.

The five school areas proposed for additional road safety treatments are:

• St. Patrick’s Catholic Elementary School (300 Otonabee Drive)
• Ecole Catholique Monseigneur-Jamot (2350 Woodglade Boulevard)
• St. Alphonsus Catholic Elementary School (875 St. Marys Street) & Keith Wightman Public School (860 St. Marys Street)
• Queen Mary Public School (1145 Monaghan Road)
• Coun. Matt Crowley asked city staff at the meeting whether the speed limit could be lowered to 40 km/h along Woodglade Boulevard -- near Ecole Catholique Monseigneur-Jamot -- from Glenforest Boulevard all the way south to Kawartha Heights Boulevard (rather than stopping at Sherbrooke Street, as the city staff report proposes).

He was told it could be extended that far.

Although no one mentioned it at the meeting, a three-year-old girl died after she was struck by a car, in late March, in a driveway along Woodglade Boulevard.

A vehicle had left the roadway and the girl was struck. No further details about the police investigation have been available since then.

At the time, Crowley said residents of Kawartha Heights Boulevard and of Woodglade Boulevard have been concerned for years about speeding in their neighbourhood.