Charlottetown will soon have more speed humps than ever before, with even more expected next year.
Council voted 7-3 Tuesday night to add 25 speed humps this year and change how city staff determine where they go.
Currently, residents can gather signatures from neighbours on their street and submit an application to the city requesting a speed hump be installed.
Next year city staff will determine where speed humps go proportionally to the number of kilometres of road in each ward.
The hope is that it will even things out a bit more throughout the city, says Coun. Julie McCabe, chair of the city’s public works committee.
“I think we’re hearing that speeding is an issue everywhere,” McCabe said.
“Some humps have been in place forever and they don’t even really meet our current criteria. So, technically they really don’t fit being there. I think they’re just trying to tidy up and make sure that they are where they’re supposed to be.”
Children and safety concerns
Streets that would never have a speed hump, such as University Avenue, weren’t included in the calculation of roadways there are per ward.
Councillors Terry Bernard, Trevor MacKinnon and Alanna Jankov voted against changing the policy. Coun. Justin Muttart was not at the council meeting. Bernard worries it might mean less speed humps in his ward
“The concern I have is if you have a ward and the numbers are going to go down, yet the city approved these. If you put them in the past as a safety issue, then I have a problem with pulling them out now,” Bernard said.
“You’re putting some of the kids in some safety issues because we have a lot of small parks, we have the community centre, we have a multi-purpose facility, we have youth groups, so that there’s a lot of crossing of streets in some areas.”
