Neighbourhood divided over new traffic calming measures

The posted speed limit along Deer Ridge Drive is 40 kilometres an hour.

That said, the city's own traffic reports suggest most drivers (85%) do 60 km/h, some go 70 km/h, and some others hit 100 km/h.

“We have been living with this nightmare for so many years,” Lurdes Jordao told a Kitchener Community and Infrastructure Services Committee meeting on Monday. “We are very concerned for the safety.”

“I myself have a husband who has mobility issues and I actually check the mail across the street in the boxes because I'm afraid he's going to get hit,” Jordao said.

City staff is suggesting a trio of new traffic calming measures in the area including a pair of speed cushions and a narrowing of the road in an area most prone to seeing excessive speeds.

That proposal though does seem to have split the neighbourhood, though mostly based on where residents actually live.

Survey results from the neighbourhood show the measures are overwhelmingly popular among residents who live close to King Street with 83 per cent voting in favour while the level of support is the exact opposite, 83 per cent opposed, among residents in the back third.

“The speed of which the traffic comes from the beginning at the corner of King, and I have seen this, I will have cars behind me revving up because, how dare I stop at a stop sign,” said Jordao.

Kitchener council will still need to vote on the proposal later this month but, for residents like Jordao, that vote can't come soon enough.

“We have been begging and lobbying for so long and we're just so tired of seeing the near misses.”