Some roads in Wellington County might have artificially low speed limits, but new guidelines could get them returned to where experts suggest they ought to be.
County council approved a speed limit increase on County Road 37 (Arkell Road) from Victoria Road easterly to the railroad crossing at its meeting on May 24.
The speed limit will move from 40 to 70km/h.
Roads committee chairman Joanne Ross-Zuj told council the move came about because council decided in January to use a study by the Transportation Association of Canada when setting speed limits.
That group did a major study a few years ago that helps local roads officials to determine speed limits. Even with safer and better equipped new vehicles, citizens groups have been attending local councils across Wellington County seeking changes in speed limits.
The guidelines give local officials a way to justify or change those limits – and they could go down – or increase.
In the case of Arkell Road, Wayne Millson wrote to county engineer Gord Ough asking for a review of the current speed limit.
“Several years ago the speed limit was 80km/h on this stretch of road and a few years ago it was lowered to 50km/h,” Millson wrote.
“There has been no change physically to this road to warrant such a reduction and I don’t see how it suddenly became unsafe to travel this road at 80km/h.”
He added, “I heard it said that this road does not meet any requirements to justify the speed limit being this low and the only reason it was successful in getting reduced to 50km/h was from the lobbying efforts of one individual.”
Millson said, “Travelling this stretch of road at 50km/h makes a driver actually feel silly. To reinforce that statement, this morning at approximately 6:50am, I followed a police vehicle … travelling 60km/h along this stretch of road instead of the posted 50km/h. I frequently see the police issuing tickets on this stretch of road and actually saw a police vehicle there yesterday afternoon. My point is that if the police are not able to travel this road at the posted speed limit, it’s unfair for them to be handing out tickets to others.”
Millson asked for a review and the county obliged.
“We gave it the test,” Ross-Zuj said of the recommendation for the road.
The recommendation passed unanimously.
