The unannounced movement of an 80 km speed limit sign near their home has at least one Bloomingdale family looking to the region for answers. The issue arose Aug. 12 when Region of Waterloo workers installed a new 80 km speed limit sign about 100 metres closer to the settlement area of Bloomingdale along St. Charles Street West, drawing the attention of resident Audrey O’Hearn. She said she’s concerned that it will only encourage already speeding motorists to drive that much faster near her home, mere metres from the road’s edge.
“I have children and it’s just not safe,” she said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. “People treat it like it’s a highway as opposed to a residential area.”
The problem stems back to several years ago, when O’Hearn says a motorist successfully fought a speeding ticket in the area by arguing that the ‘80 km begins’ sign was more than 500 metres from the intersection of Sawmill Road and St. Charles, the legal limit under the regional bylaw at the time.
As a result the signs were moved closer to town to comply with the bylaw, but after more than three years of residents complaining about excessive speeding on the road, regional council decided to change that bylaw last January to extend the 50-km/h zone that incorporates the main settlement area of Bloomingdale by an extra 100 metres on St. Charles Street.
The region distributed 35 surveys to residents in the area and received 19 responses, 14 of which were in favour of expanding the 50-km/h zone, an area of road which sees some 4,100 vehicles every day according to a regional study.
However, last Friday O’Hearn’s husband Mark Koppeser returned home from work to find that the 80 km signs had been moved about 100 metres closer to town than they had been the previous day.
O’Hearn said that she and other residents received no information from the region on the movement of the sign, and that she has talked with police officers conducting speed traps in the area who also had no idea of why the signs were moved, she said.
“It’s extremely frustrating, after we’ve gone through all this effort with the complaints and we’ve followed the process and it was just changed on a whim it seems.”
According to the region, however, the signs were moved too far from the settlement area back in January; instead of being 600 metres from the intersection of Sawmill and St. Charles in accordance with the new bylaw, the signs had been placed 750 metres from the intersection.
“We identified that, and we have changed it back to the original 600,” said Mike Jones, the region’s supervisor of traffic, in an interview Wednesday.
Jones said the mistake was regrettable, adding he had informed O’Hearn via email earlier in the day of why the change was made.
“That’s unfortunate that it went in the wrong location and that would give the impression that we’ve moved it back to where they were before, but that isn’t the case.”
In the end, however, O’Hearn and her family are still concerned about the excess speeds in the area which she said has caused photos and paintings to vibrate off the walls of their home.
Jones said his office does receive complaints on a weekly basis from residents throughout the region with regards to speeding concerns, and that they will be following up and conducting traffic studies in the area of Bloomingdale to determine how effective the movement of the sign has been in helping to slow motorists down.
He admits, though, that merely moving signs has little impact on speeders.
“The only way that we can reduce speed is to build up an area more than it is today, which is through the introduction of sidewalks, bike lanes, trees, medians and that sort of thing,” he said, adding that some of those measures are scheduled to be implemented in Conestogo on Sawmill Road.
