by Sylene Argent
The County of Essex will come back to its upper-tier municipal Council with a report on possibly lowering the speed limit for Lakeshore’s section of County Road 34.
During the Wednesday, December 15 County Council meeting, Lakeshore Mayor Tom Bain made a motion, which received support from County Council, to have Administration prepare a report for a possible reduction in speed on County Road 34, from Dawson Road to Manning Road.
Bain is hoping that section’s speed limit will be reduced to at least 60km/hr.
Explaining the background information about the possible speed limit change, Bain said the County recently responded to a petition submitted from residents in the section around Dawson Road, who wanted a reduction in speed in their area.
As part of discussions, the County Infrastructure Services Department was going to recommend to County Council that the speed limit be lowered by 10km/hr from Manning Road to the Essex Border as part of a reporting to Lakeshore Council. This is in response to the original request from Lakeshore, for a reduced speed limit in that vicinity, Mary Birch, Director of Council and Community Services/Clerk, explained.
The matter still needs to go to County Council for approval, and the traffic and speed limit by-law will then need to be amended, she added. There will be a further report coming to County Council on the matter, possibly in February, to further address Bain’s request and a full recommendation on the speed limit on County Road 34 in that area.
Bain noted Lakeshore Council was appreciative of County of Essex’s Infrastructure Services Department was going to recommend the speed limit on County Road 34, from Manning Road to the Essex/Lakeshore Border, be reduced by 10km/hr, but he would like to see the section from Dawson Road to Manning reduced further.
He said it is a small section, with a lot of homes.
“But, we feel it should it be about 10km/hr lower yet in that section from Dawson Road to Manning Road, because of the high number of homes in there, in that section, and [because] of the children and school buses,” Bain explained after the meeting.
“If you look to the west [to Tecumseh’s portion of County Road 34] the same section, the speed is reduced, but ours is not on the east side. And we actually have more homes than you do on the section there on the west side.”
Lowering the speed will also help with the approach to the Manning Road and County Road 34 intersection, he added.
“We love what they are [recommending] all the way into Essex, but in that section, where all the homes are, and where the original petition was [for], from Dawson to Manning, it needs to be slower. It needs to be the same speed as on the west side.”
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