City reduces Great Northern Rd speed limit. Speedophiles just go faster

Last year's speed limit reductions on Great Northern Road have done little to reduce traffic speeds or accidents.

In response to a City Council directive, the posted limit from 800 metres north of Third Line to Fifth Line was reduced last summer from 80 km/h to 70 km/h.

But instead of slowing down, many drivers are actually flying even faster than before, especially between Fourth and Fifth Line.

"Comparing the speed data illustrates a slight speed reduction in northbound traffic between Third and Fourth Line while other locations have not significantly changed," says Carl Rumiel, the city's manager of design and transportation engineering, in a report to be presented to City Council on Monday.

Speed studies conducted before and after last summer's changes found that northbound speedsters on Great Northern Road between Fourth and Fifth Line are now typically moving 89.5 km/h.

That's almost 20 km/h over the speed limit and 1.4 km/h faster than before the new speed limits were posted.

More from Rumiel's report to Mayor Provenzano and councillors: "Staff also compared collision data and found that the average number of reported collisions between 2015 to 2018 on this stretch of Great Northern to be 23 collisions per calendar year. Over the first six months of 2019, there were 15 reported collisions which is consistent with the previous four years."

City Council will nonetheless be asked to make no further changes to Great Northern Road speed limits.

Monday's City Council meeting will be livestreamed on SooToday starting at 4:30 p.m.