Cambridge councillor calling for safety audit for busy Preston side street

Traffic calming measures could be coming to a popular King Street by-pass in Preston if a local councillor gets her way.

Corey Kimpson, who represents Cambridge Ward 3, has requested a Road Safety Audit for Laurel Street between Duke and Eagle Streets, as well as Duke Street itself.

Laurel Street is used frequently by drivers to get around the daily slowdowns on King Street and area residents are concerned for pedestrian safety.

“It’s something many people have reached out to me about,” Kimpson told The Mike Farwell Show. “There’s been significant crashes on a regular basis. And it’s also an area where we have a lot of pedestrians and children crossing to go to school. So, this absolutely needs to be looked at and we need to move this forward as quickly as we can.”

The urgency to install measures to slow traffic is ramping up due to a major residential construction project that will be underway soon at 777 Laurel Street, only to compound the issues.

Of course, the safety audit would come with a price tag that will have to be included in the 2025 budget. Council is in the process of working on the budget.

Kimpson believes the information gathered would be well worth the cost.

“By doing it as a pilot, then we can look at ‘does this work for us?’ How long does this take? Does it produce information that is useful to us?”

Kimpson said the information could then be used to address traffic concerns and in other areas of the city.

She hopes council will move quickly to approve the audit, saying when safety is concerned, there is no time to waste.