New traffic calming measures planned for four Waterloo school zones

The City of Waterloo has decided on some new measures for areas where speed cameras once stood near schools. CTV's Alexandra Holyk reports.

New traffic calming measures are set to be installed in four Waterloo school zones in an effort to improve road safety near schools.

Speed humps and raised pedestrian crossings will be installed near St. Nicholas Catholic Elementary School, St. Agnes Catholic Elementary School, MacGregor Senior Public School and Keats Way Public School.

“It’s a physical measure,” said Ward 7 Coun. Julie Wright. “If you’re driving your car down the road and you’re at that 85th percentile, you’re going to feel those bumps.”

Waterloo city council unanimously approved the measures during a meeting Monday afternoon.

“What we want to do is create the conditions for drivers to be able to stop in time,” Wright added.

The four areas are considered “high priority” and previously housed Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras. In November, the Ford government banned the cameras across the province and created a multi-million-dollar Road Safety Initiatives Fund (RSIF), offering municipalities money to install other traffic calming measures.

“I honestly believe that the speed cameras were more effective than the measures that we’re going to be implementing,” said Ward 2 Coun. Royce Bodaly. “But for sure, something has to be done in these areas for the safety of children and pedestrians and cyclists.”

The Region of Waterloo received $840,000 through the first round of the RSIF, with a portion allocated to the City of Waterloo.

“Roughly, the amount was around $30,000 per intervention or mitigation effort for each of those schools,” Wright said, when speaking about the planned installations. “And then we would be looking at a potential additional injection of funds from the region to expand that.”

City staff also hope to add safety measures to six additional school zones where speed cameras had originally been planned before the provincial ban.

“It’s all funding dependent at this point in time,” Wright said.

The new measures are expected to be completed by the end of the year.