Friday, October 9, 2020 5 Brooklin Town Crier North Ward Councillor - By Steve Lee Speed Bump Pilot Project Speed bumps are finally here! As a father with young children, I am a huge proponent of finding ways to improve safety in our residential neighbourhoods. In fact, I ran my 2018 election campaign on that very platform. We all live on streets with many young families and kids. We also all have our share of stories about how fast people tend to drive these days in Whitby and Brooklin. There are more drivers speeding through our residential streets and others looking for shortcuts around traffic by cutting through side streets. Markham experience I've been working with Town staff to investigate what can be done about it. One thing I have always been a fan of is speed bumps. Before moving to Brooklin, I lived in Markham, which has had speed bumps for quite some time. In my view, they do work and help. However, they need to be used in conjunction with other traffic calming measures to be fully effective. Plus, some roads have provincial rules and guidelines we have to follow; others have specific circumstances before we can install them. One street I've seen and heard so much about was Robert Attersley Dr. Drivers speed along it and use it as a shortcut to avoid Taunton Rd. It was getting so bad that many residents parked their cars on the road to try to skinny it up, forcing drivers to slow down. This was, I felt, the perfect street on which to test speed bumps. While they haven't been used in the North Ward, I wanted to see if they could be as effective as I believed they could be. My motion to council asked staff to use Robert Attersley Dr. as a pilot program for testing speed bumps and traffic calming. Controversial Speed bumps are one of the most common types of traffic calming devices. Although they're effective in keeping speeds down, their use is sometimes controversial. They can increase traffic noise, may damage vehicles if traversed at too great a speed, and slow emergency vehicles. Poorly-designed speed bumps that stand too tall or with too- sharp an angle can be disruptive for drivers and may be difficult to navigate for vehicles with low ground clearance, even at low speeds. This pilot program will test two different kinds. We want to test both to obtain feedback on which is the more effective one to calm traffic. One model being tested allows for emergency vehicles such as fire trucks to pass over without having to hit them. The models tested are also optionally removable for the winter and we'll be testing them with the snow plows as well. I am hopeful this pilot program will be successful and that we will see speed reduction and an increase to safety. With positive results, we'd be able to install these in other streets in Brooklin and Whitby.