Cambridge council to vote on implementation plan for reduced speed limits

New speed limits are coming to neighbourhoods and school zones in Cambridge. How they will be rolled out has yet to be decided.

The current city council already approved the plan to drop the speed limit on residential streets to 40 km/h and around schools to 30 km/h. Tonight’s vote will determine the method which speed limits are implemented.

Cambridge Ward 5 Coun. Sheri Roberts told The Mike Farwell Show it was a pilot project by a previous council that has resulted in this council rolling out the initiative city-wide.

“It did work well at slowing people down, even just from a signage and education perspective. It was enough to change behaviour,” she said.

The Neighbourhood Area Speed Limit Implementation plan proposes posting the new limits in a phased approach over the next two years. A staggered roll-out would spread the cost of the new signage over two budgets rather than a one-time budget hit just shy of $590,000.

Roberts said she and fellow councillors hear from residents all the time about road and pedestrian safety.

“It’s probably one of the number one complaints and concerns we hear from residents.”

If council votes to approve the implementation plan, the first signs would start going up in the next couple of weeks. Phase 2 would begin during the summer.

Roberts said when it comes to school zones, 68 per cent would be completed by the end of September 2024, and 74 per cent by the end of this year.

The entire project would be completed by the fall of 2025.