Springwater council is laser-focused on reducing the number of speeding drivers across the township.
Over the past year, council has introduced a number of initiatives, including road bollards and the recently approved automated speed enforcement (ASE), in an effort to get drivers to slow down.
At last night’s council meeting, Deputy Mayor George Cabral suggested the township add another tool to its arsenal — solar-powered radar boards.
In his notice of motion, Cabral requested township staff be directed to “procure solar-powered radar boards, suitable to our rural roadway settings where the speed limit is 80 km/h, as a means to provide direct feedback and alert drivers of their speed with the aim to reduce excessive speed, enhance pedestrian and cyclist safety, and gather statistical speed data for analysis as desired.”
He directed that the funds needed to pay for the solar-powered radar boards should come from his discretionary fund.
(On Sept. 20 of last year, council passed its council discretionary fund policy, which allows each member on council, with the approval of the entire council, to dole out up to $4,000 annually to causes they deem worthy of community funds.)
“I find them quite useful,” Cabral said of the radar boards. “I think it’s important to let folks know when they’re on our roadways that if they’re going over the 80 km/h I think it would do us well to be able to utilize these radar boards to advise them and alert them that they are, in fact, speeding.”
Cabral’s motion was fully supported by Councillors Danielle Alexander and Matt Garwood, both of whom said they’ve corrected their own driving behaviours because of radar boards.
“I think they’re a great idea,” Alexander said. “I personally know they help me. There are times when I am potentially driving too fast and it is a great reminder to slow down.
“They do work,” she added.
Alexander said she would like to have one installed on Flos Road 4 West, going into the village of Phelpston. She said the speed limit in that area is 50 km/h, but people still travel 80 km/h or more.
Garwood currently has three radar boards in his district, Ward 1, and would welcome another one with no hesitation.
“I too have relied on them multiple times,” he said. “I fully support this motion.”
According to Dan Eberhardt, Springwater's manager of capital infrastructure delivery, township staff could take care of the installation of the signs.
“Staffing-wise and resources-wise, we would be able to take this on internally,” Eberhardt said. “My one comment with that is that these signs, although they could be moved from one spot to another, are best to be in a fixed location.”
Cabral said he would expect the signs to remain in their assigned locations for at least four to six months at a time.
“When we’re talking about the rural areas, it’s not quite the same as the settlement areas where folks are constantly coming into the same area on a regular basis,” Cabral said. “I would like to leave the option of being able to move them down the road available to council members who might want to suggest a movement or even if staff recognizes another location that might be more suitable.
“I would see them installed for probably in the neighbourhood of six months, if not longer, if that area is an area that deserves to have it on a regular basis,” he added.
Cabral said each unit will cost $4,380.
Council voted unanimously to support his motion.
Township staff will now procure three solar-powered radar boards to paid for from the deputy mayor’s, Ward 1 councillor’s and Ward 2 councillor’s discretionary funds.
Timing for the installation of the boards was not provided.
