A motion to reduce the speed limit on Myers Road from 50 km/h to 40 km/h will be discussed at the next regional council meeting after Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry gave notice she'll be calling for the change Wednesday night.
Citing rapid growth and intensification in the surrounding area, McGarry said now is the time to reduce the speed limit on the entirety of Myers Road, which is home to Moffat Creek Public School, Holy Spirit Catholic School and Monsignor Doyle Catholic Secondary School.
In her notice of motion, she said the road will see a rapid increase in traffic once homes are built in the Southpoint subdivision and the city’s new recreation complex, Idea Exchange and joint Catholic and public school come on line over the next three years.
The motion will ask staff to implement the speed reduction while discussions continue on the layout and design of Myers Road, which is scheduled for reconstruction as early as next year.
McGarry also wants staff to report back to council on all school zones within the region that do not currently have speed limits of 40 km/h.
Ward 7 councillor Scott Hamilton has been asking the same of the region for months; a request that took on greater urgency after a boy was struck by a commercial pick-up truck while crossing the road near Moffat Creek school in early September.
Hamilton said he thought the accident might have been enough to prompt the region to make the change then, but was told analysis of the road doesn’t warrant the lower speed limit past Franklin Boulevard. The region said it would consider making the change once road reconstruction gets underway.
The speed limit is already 40 km/h in front of Monsignor Doyle, but because Myers is a regional road, the city is powerless to lower speed limits like it has done in other parts of the city.
Earlier this year, Cambridge launched a two-year pilot program to reduce the speed limit to 40 km/h in four neighbourhoods identified for problem speeding.
In the meantime on Myers Road, Hamilton had requested digital speed warning signs and a couple of "Where’s Tommy & Friends?" child cutout safety signs, but they're circulated to other parts of the city every few weeks.
With discussions ongoing about the scope of reconstruction along Myers, Hamilton wonders how long it's going to take before the region takes action on the speed problem.
"At least until then, let's lower the speed, because there's clearly a substantial issue," he said. "Parents have been talking about it for almost a decade."
“I’m really glad Kathryn and the other Cambridge regional councillors are in support of this. Fingers crossed that the region agrees,” Hamilton said. “I think it’s absolutely a necessary change and it’s a message to parents that the city’s listening and doing everything it can.”
