Greater Sudbury implementing speed limit pilot project in some residential areas

Greater Sudbury residents may have noticed new 40 km/h speed signs going up in some residential neighbourhoods over the last few weeks.

The city is implementing the Gateway Speed Limit pilot project in a residential area of each ward.

In the designated Gateway Speed Limit zones, speed limits have been reduced to 40 km/h in residential areas and 30 km/h in school zones within that designated area.

"This has been an ongoing project," said Ryan Purdy, acting manager of transportation and innovation support for the City of Greater Sudbury.

"We've been asked by council about lowering speed limits to 40 km/h in the city."

Purdy said there has been a change to the Highway Traffic Act, which now allows the city to post the speed signs when entering a Gateway speed zone, instead of having a sign on every street within the area.

The city is in the process of installing the new speed limit signs at the beginning and end of each zone to notify drivers, which Purdy said they hope to have done by the time the school year starts in early September.

"In July, we had our bylaws passed that allowed us to start putting up the 40 km/h signs," said Purdy. 

"Right now, I would say we probably have a good part of the signs installed [and] we're just working on getting that done in the next few weeks."

Purdy explained that once all the signs are installed, the city will be partnering with Greater Sudbury Police to do enforcement work in the designated areas for the duration of the pilot project, which will continue until the third quarter of 2024. 

"The idea is that toward the end of 2024, we'll be bringing back a report to city council to talk about how the pilot project went, how effective the signs were, and if they were effective in reducing speeds in those areas," Purdy confirmed.

"The report is going to outline a number of traffic and speed studies that will happen during the duration of the pilot project, like when police are enforcing, when they're not enforcing, and that will give city council a good idea of how well those speed limit areas have performed."

Purdy said council will use the data in the report to determine if the Gateway Speed Limit program was a success, and if it will expand to other areas of the city or not continue at all.

The Gateway Speed Limit pilot project only includes roads in residential areas, and the City of Greater Sudbury said existing speed limits on main roadways bordering the designated areas are not affected.