South Bruce Peninsula council has directed staff to look into speed reduction measures on Silver Lake Road in Sauble Beach.
In recent years, the road has become busier, in part because it can be an alternate route to the beach, instead of sitting in traffic on Main Street.
Residents voiced their concerns in a presentation to council Tuesday. Some issues for them include the narrowness of the road in some areas and its popularity among pedestrians walking to the beach or stopping to look at the lake. They say the 60km/h speed limit is not slowing some drivers down.
The residents are suggesting a number of traffic calming measures, including reducing the speed to 50km/h and adding a traffic light system at the intersection with Bruce Road 13. Other suggestions include adding rubber speed bumps in the warmer months, a radar trailer that tells drivers they are going too fast, and adding some stop signs to disrupt the speed of traffic
Mayor Jay Kirkland said during discussion, “We have been kind of guilty ourselves of directing traffic down that road. We’ve asked our staff to update that road from tar and chip to tarmac. It’s a heavily used road, we know it as council,” he adds, “And we’re directing traffic to start coming that way,” says Kirkland, noting, “We’re trying to get three transportation routes into Sauble Beach because of the heavy summer traffic.”
The Town has a traffic calming policy already in place, but Deputy Mayor Caleb Hull said he would like to also have the ability to use speed cameras, but they can only be used in Community Safety Zones. He suggested staff make a delegation to the provincial government at an upcoming conference to see if the laws could change.
Director of Public Works Brianna Collins says staff want to gather more data about traffic patterns and speeds before finalizing a recommendation for council to consider. That data may be gathered in the spring.
CAO Bill Jones says, staff can commit that there will be a plan in place before next summer.