Speed bump approval process too slow for Aldersbrook resident

In nearly 50 years living on Aldersbrook Road, Barry Playford has seen both the volume and speed of traffic steadily increase. 

In recent years, he's also seen more collisions on his section of Aldersbrook, located west of Wonderland Road and north of Gainsborough Road.

"I call it the Aldersbrook speedway," he said. 

In March, a motorcyclist was killed on Aldersbrook near Ranchwood Cres. Last fall, a vehicle veered off Aldersbrook and took out a mature tree a few doors down from Playford's house. In another crash, a parked vehicle rolled more than 50 metres across the street after being rear-ended. 

The city reduced the speed limit on that section of Aldersbrook from 50 km/h to its current 40 km/h earlier this year, but Playford said that limit is generally ignored by drivers. 

Playford feels his stretch of road needs three or four speed bumps to slow down traffic. But in trying to follow the city's process for getting traffic calming measures installed on residential streets, Playford hit a a few speed bumps of his own in what he believes is a flawed process that almost assures failure.

The city has a 60-page document that outlines the multi-step process residents must follow to get new traffic-calming measures approved. The process doesn't cover school zones, where the city takes a more active role in slowing traffic down.

A resident with a concern about a street like Aldersbrook must first get 10 signatures from neighbours in support of new traffic calming measures.  

"I had no problem whatsoever getting that," said Playford. 

The next step, however, was tricker. 

In response to the petition signatures, the city also requires a majority of residents in the area to indicate on a survey that they want the traffic-calming measures. 

The proposed changes are mailed to residents with a "yes or no" question about whether or not they want that change to happen. A postage-paid envelope for their response is included with each survey question.

About 60 of Playford's neighbours received the petition, but less than a third sent sent their surveys back indicating they wanted the speed bumps, he said. The city requires 51 per cent to respond to the survey in favour of the new measures before they can go ahead. 

What Playford feels is unfair is that non responses to the survey are counted the same as submitted "no" votes. Playford is also unhappy the survey asked about eight installed speed bumps when he feels only four are needed. In addition, he said he feels that polling 60 residents was too high a number, making it difficult to reach the 50 per cent plus one threshold for the proposed changes to go ahead.