50K is here to stay!

We are very excited to have new 50 K signs on Weber Street! To understand this excitement some background is necessary. 

As we all know, the Weber Street widening, along with King St. closing due to LRT construction, has meant more traffic, at higher speeds, is coming through the MHBP area. Many of our residents have complained about speeding drivers from Union down to Victoria. Of course much of Weber in Waterloo is 60K but in Kitchener it is 50K.  

We borrowed a speed gun and recorded many drivers in excess of 60K and MHBPNA reported this to Regional Police who increased their patrols and they have caught many speeders and ticketed them.

Still, we have always felt one problem is that there was only one sign saying “50K Begins” and many people simply miss it. They are used to driving 60K in Waterloo and now that Weber has four lanes past Guelph,  they don’t see much reason to slow down.

Our Neighbourhood Association contacted Regional politicians and staff and initially we were told “the default is 50K so we only post signs when it is not that speed” and we want to avoid “an over abundance of signage in built up areas”.  We were disappointed with these responses and kept bringing up the issue whenever we met to discuss other topics like the Transit Hub and Waterloo Street. 

Guess what? Our persistence paid off and we now have additional 50K signs installed on Weber! Of course this does not mean all drivers are automatically going to slow down. But the signs encourage slower speeds and we will continue to talk with police about enforcement. 

A week ago (when it was, uh, sunny and warm!) several residents got together and took this neighbourhood photo to show how much we love our regional speed limit signs!

As always, click on the image for a larger, and even more vibrant, photo!

Thanks to Stephen Edgar for the photo!