Should downtown traffic be slowed to 20 kph?

A proposal to lower speeds on Queen and Bay Streets downtown to 20 kilometres an hour will be discussed at an upcoming meeting of the city's environmental sustainability committee.

The proposal is to reduce speeds by changing timing of the lights, "helping transform downtown into a place people go to rather than than a place people go through."

It's one of eight ideas submitted by committee members, from which the committee will decide which projects it will undertake in 2022.

Other suggestions to be discussed at the committee's February meeting include:

• develop and implement an urban tree-planting and monitoring program
• active transportation wayfinding strategy
• design trail survey
• start an annual active transportation/ commute survey/ campaign to better determine and promote uptake year-round
• investigate the possibility of using local biomass as a greenhouse-gas offset in the community
• hire an artist to paint selected street stormwater gutters with a drawing saying "the St. Marys River (or the Ocean) starts here"
• consider assessing use of gutter pollution capture technology

A report on the first year of the city's greenhouse gas reduction action plan will be presented to City Council at its next meeting on Jan. 31.