After more than 32,000 speeding tickets were handed out in just three weeks by new automated speed enforcement cameras in community safety zones, council in the City of Vaughan decided to pause the program.
Mayor Steven Del Duca put forward the motion last week to pause the tickets until September, when council is due to receive a report from staff on ways the city can create more effective signage about the presence of cameras.
The solution is better road-way design and classifications.
Changing a speed limit sign on a roadway does not change the roadways “designed” or “perceived” speed limit.
When changing signage, the roadway also need to change.
Example, you can’t increase the signed speed limit to 100 kph on a residential street without first a complete redesign of said street into a hwy. This is done by removing driveways, speedbumps, crosswalks, stop signs, and roundabouts. Without this redesign of the roadway this residential street would not make a really good hwy. The exact reverse is true. A hwy does not make a good residential street.
People always say that, and while yes it is true that wider lanes, less intersections, and less roadside hazards do make the road feel like you can speed, use your goddamn speedometer.
People are thinking breathing creatures. Idgaf if the road feels like I could go 100km/hr, if the sign says 50, I’m not flying at 100 down the road because I can think and be aware. At the end of the day, speeding is a CHOICE. Road design can make it feel slow or painful to do the speed limit, but if you can’t override that feeling and pay attention while driving, you don’t deserve a license.
We need a mix of both. Yes people should be following the rules, but the truth is some people don’t and with how normalized driving is, testing standards are pretty relaxed. Most people were tested as teenagers and now just rely on getting tickets to keep us in line, meanwhile many trades and certificates require retesting to stay valid. It would be horrendously expensive to retest drivers, but i think regular retesting should be done and the bill should be paid for by the drivers.
Currently it feels just as safe to do 80 in most 60 zones. Changing the design to make speeding feel more risky and feel unsafe will reduce speeding and let people rely less on their speedometers.
My coworker doesn’t like to speed. His new van doesn’t have cruise control. The 10 speed automatic transmission can let you creep from 100 to 115/120 pretty easily and relatively unnoticeably on an empty road. He complains how half his time driving hes constantly checking the speedometer and feels he is paying less attention to the roadway because of that. This issue isn’t as simple as check the speedometer more often. Vehicle and roadway design plays a factor as well.
For sure! One of those changes requires money and time, and one requires people to pay attention. Should be an easy choice which should get implemented now vs in 5-10yrs.
I dislike the infantalization of the public, and the idea that people can’t be trusted, so we should make the roads such that they NEED to follow the limit feels stupid.
If he’s on a highway, then learn what 100 feels like in your new car. It’s an adjustment. I work in road design, and the safety standards that are required when designing highways trump concerns over speeding. People are bad judges of what is a ‘safe’ speed, and building highways around how fast people feel comfortable going leads to more accidents and more dangerous accidents.
That being said, I’m all for narrowing lanes, adding MUPs or widening sidewalks, all of which can occur at the same time. But the transportation master plan and/or asset management queue is built up for the next ~10 years (minimum), and updating or changing that is a very expensive process most places dont have the money for.
From the article, New Westminster Drive was the highest (9,000+ tickets). The road was redone in 2015 (with no changes to the alignment or width). That means they’re likely looking at a minimum of 15+ years before they’ll rebuild the road, which is whats required to adjust curblines, narrow the road, or otherwise change the alignment. Likewise Ansley Grove Road was redone in 2010, and won’t be rebuilt for 10+years.
Those roads are all four lane urban roads with few intersecting streets and long stretches for motorists to get up to speed. Speed enforcement is the simplest and fastest method to address the problem now. Sure, petition your local council to change what their standard road cross section is, but that won’t change anything for 15+ years. ___