City councillors are telling Thunder Bay motorists to slow down along Oliver Road.
Council voted to reduce the speed along the stretch of road east of Golf Links Road from 60 kilometres per hour to 50 kilometres per hour. The reason for the decrease was to make the stretch of road safer for pedestrians. Thunder Bay Police Service officers issued more than 1,860 speeding tickets on Oliver Road from June 2010 to June 2012.
City administration also announced it will install a traffic light near the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre entrance.
Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs was in favour of the motion and said people are driving too fast with speeds being clocked around 90 kilometres per hour.
“People usually drive 15 kilometres per hour over the posted speed limit because that’s the magic number for points,” Hobbs said. “I think at 50 we are going to have slower drivers and not so many reckless drivers like what we are getting now.”
Although he agreed to lower the speed limit, he added Oliver Road will always be a “fishing hole” for police to ticket speeders.
Northwood Coun. Mark Bentz wasn’t as confident in the strategy and said he didn’t see it as a solution to the problem.
“When I look at the recommendation we have a stretch of road that arterial, it’s wide, it’s four lanes with a low incident of collisions yet we are lowering the speed limit because people are speeding on it,” Bentz said.
“People generally speed where it’s safe to do it. I’m not advocating speeding but to go down to 50 on that road I just don’t see as a solution. Maybe its radar or enforcement but I would hate to see people keep speeding and then they lower the speed limit.”
The city's infrastructure and operations manager Darrell Matson said they would try the two methods at the moment and reevaluate the situation later. If there hasn’t been an improvement, then the city will trying something different, he said.
But Oliver Road wasn’t the only street to receive a boost to traffic safety.
Council established a community safety zone on Dawson Road to Hunt Road to Willow Park Drive. The zone will have a speed radar sign installed adjacent to Five Mile Public School as well as additional community safety zone signs.
The $33,400 for the signs will be included in the 2013 budget.
