Chalk up another frustrating City Council meeting yesterday!
On the plus side, the amendment I made for the Greenhill Ave Community Safety Zone, from Wilson Rd. to Harmony, seconded by Councillor Neal, was passed (although not unanimously).
Yes, it it was one step forward but there were two HUGELY Disappointing Missed Opportunities to Advance Road and Vehicle Safety in the City at Council yesterday.
First, concerns the fact that the Mayor chose not allow my Time Sensitive Motion to be presented to Council.
What made it most troubling was that I went and spoke with the Mayor in person the day before with Councillor Neal, to explain what and why we believe it important that Council support making RAGLAN RD. WEST a Community Safety Zone.
With Raglan residents understandably increasingly alarmed by the growing number of vehicles clocking wildly excessive speeds through their community —with the traffic volume and aggressive speeding on Raglan Rd. West between Simcoe St. N and Stevenson St. N. making driveway access and egress to the many residents’ homes very dangerous, the process to calm traffic on this busy REGIONAL Road is LONG OVERDUE.
I vividly recall the first Community Safety Zone this term of Oshawa Council passed at it's first Council meeting December 3, 2018. It was with a Time Sensitive Motion at the start of the meeting.
"That the Region of Durham be requested to pass a bylaw to establish a community safety zone along Simcoe Street North generally between the intersection at Niagara Drive/Selleck Lane on the south and the Campus Ice Centre driveway on the north applicable to all times throughout the year and to install appropriate signage and Speed Boards along Simcoe Street North in appropriate locations." That was 3 weeks after a student pedestrian was killed.
THEN, LAST YEAR the Region of Durham initiated its Automated Speed Enforcement Program which involved rotating 4 radar speed cameras on Regional Road 'Community Safety Zones' around the Region.
Region staff will be updating Region Council about its speed camera program sometime late spring, and the Region is soon approving its 2022 Budget. Oshawa Council supporting the time sensitive motion could have expedited getting the plan for a Raglan Rd. West Community Safety Zone before the Region, so that Raglan Rd W could also be added to the Region's Automated Speed Enforcement Cameras list.
The delay means back to square one, and another month or two to accomplish what should have been proceeded this month...at both the Region and City.
The Second missed opportunity had to do with the Notice of Motion CS-22-08 on the Agenda, which was about Staff investigating the opportunity for Oshawa to have Automated Speed Enforcement Cameras on its LOCAL Community Safety Zones.
Last year Ajax Council approved 3 radar speed cameras to be located on a rotation basis among its 14 Community Safety Zones; and likewise Pickering Council last spring approved 2 radar speed cameras to be rotated among its 13 Community Safety Zones.
Oshawa is behind on this technology. Only the Region's cameras are on a rotation basis among the school zones on Simcoe, Rossland, Stevenson, Adelaide and Ritson. But there are none on any local road School or Community Safety Zones!
Imo the City of Oshawa is behind the time in getting the information out to Council members and the public about the ASE program. Some wrongly think these cameras are a money grab and will be on any or all streets. The Traffic Act changes made in 2017 only allow them in Community Safety Zones, and no demerit points can be issued with the tickets.
The data is substantial indicating how effective they are, Edmonton, for example, reports collisions have decreased 18% and the number of tickets for speeding tickets have decreased.
The problem yesterday was that a majority of Council yesterday were content to wait, and the CS-22-08 motion was 'received for information', which means a pass, NO ACTION taken.
This article about Hamilton TWO YEARS AGO approving the radar cameras instead of delaying a decision shows what real leadership entails. If you read it to the end you will see the data has been out for some time "There is evidence from many other jurisdictions that photo radar works." www.thespec.com/opinion/editorials/2020/01/15/editorial-hamilton-council-gets-it-right-on-photo-radar.html?fbclid=IwAR2ILjxrQhot9tTgOvsaMXqCO4nazhus_PWtMZ3do5QK0x-qigmfRo3GbhE
On the plus side, the amendment I made for the Greenhill Ave Community Safety Zone, from Wilson Rd. to Harmony, seconded by Councillor Neal, was passed (although not unanimously).
Yes, it it was one step forward but there were two HUGELY Disappointing Missed Opportunities to Advance Road and Vehicle Safety in the City at Council yesterday.
First, concerns the fact that the Mayor chose not allow my Time Sensitive Motion to be presented to Council.
What made it most troubling was that I went and spoke with the Mayor in person the day before with Councillor Neal, to explain what and why we believe it important that Council support making RAGLAN RD. WEST a Community Safety Zone.
With Raglan residents understandably increasingly alarmed by the growing number of vehicles clocking wildly excessive speeds through their community —with the traffic volume and aggressive speeding on Raglan Rd. West between Simcoe St. N and Stevenson St. N. making driveway access and egress to the many residents’ homes very dangerous, the process to calm traffic on this busy REGIONAL Road is LONG OVERDUE.
I vividly recall the first Community Safety Zone this term of Oshawa Council passed at it's first Council meeting December 3, 2018. It was with a Time Sensitive Motion at the start of the meeting.
"That the Region of Durham be requested to pass a bylaw to establish a community safety zone along Simcoe Street North generally between the intersection at Niagara Drive/Selleck Lane on the south and the Campus Ice Centre driveway on the north applicable to all times throughout the year and to install appropriate signage and Speed Boards along Simcoe Street North in appropriate locations." That was 3 weeks after a student pedestrian was killed.
THEN, LAST YEAR the Region of Durham initiated its Automated Speed Enforcement Program which involved rotating 4 radar speed cameras on Regional Road 'Community Safety Zones' around the Region.
Region staff will be updating Region Council about its speed camera program sometime late spring, and the Region is soon approving its 2022 Budget. Oshawa Council supporting the time sensitive motion could have expedited getting the plan for a Raglan Rd. West Community Safety Zone before the Region, so that Raglan Rd W could also be added to the Region's Automated Speed Enforcement Cameras list.
The delay means back to square one, and another month or two to accomplish what should have been proceeded this month...at both the Region and City.
The Second missed opportunity had to do with the Notice of Motion CS-22-08 on the Agenda, which was about Staff investigating the opportunity for Oshawa to have Automated Speed Enforcement Cameras on its LOCAL Community Safety Zones.
Last year Ajax Council approved 3 radar speed cameras to be located on a rotation basis among its 14 Community Safety Zones; and likewise Pickering Council last spring approved 2 radar speed cameras to be rotated among its 13 Community Safety Zones.
Oshawa is behind on this technology. Only the Region's cameras are on a rotation basis among the school zones on Simcoe, Rossland, Stevenson, Adelaide and Ritson. But there are none on any local road School or Community Safety Zones!
Imo the City of Oshawa is behind the time in getting the information out to Council members and the public about the ASE program. Some wrongly think these cameras are a money grab and will be on any or all streets. The Traffic Act changes made in 2017 only allow them in Community Safety Zones, and no demerit points can be issued with the tickets.
The data is substantial indicating how effective they are, Edmonton, for example, reports collisions have decreased 18% and the number of tickets for speeding tickets have decreased.
The problem yesterday was that a majority of Council yesterday were content to wait, and the CS-22-08 motion was 'received for information', which means a pass, NO ACTION taken.
This article about Hamilton TWO YEARS AGO approving the radar cameras instead of delaying a decision shows what real leadership entails. If you read it to the end you will see the data has been out for some time "There is evidence from many other jurisdictions that photo radar works." www.thespec.com/opinion/editorials/2020/01/15/editorial-hamilton-council-gets-it-right-on-photo-radar.html?fbclid=IwAR2ILjxrQhot9tTgOvsaMXqCO4nazhus_PWtMZ3do5QK0x-qigmfRo3GbhE
