Collingwood, ON [27 August 2024] – Just ahead of the new school year, Council continues their commitment to community safety and safer streets by implementing a new reduced speed limit for both School and Community Safety Zones, to 30 Km/hour. An exception to the School Zones affected is the location on Highway 26 West in front of the Pretty River Academy due to it being on a Highway.
The speed limit reductions are to ensure consistency which may result in a positive impact on driver behavior. The key focus of a 30km/h school zone implementation is to provide extra emphasis in the most vulnerable areas which are the local school zones. Specifically, within 150m around the school property, where students and guardians are more concentrated. These are to be coupled with enhanced pavement markings to further define their special characteristics. Staff will continue to take steps to implement tools that improve safety by focusing on the most critical areas with plans to monitor, assess, adjust, and/or expand as required.
Some new community safety zones are also being implemented including Pretty River Academy, National Ski Academy, and Riverside Park. Speed limits will be reduced in front of all schools, to help promote pedestrian and student safety.
Feedback within the Master Mobility & Transportation Plan, and the Speed Limit Review requested by Council, will further review the areas of concern concerning safety and speed in Collingwood.
With school starting for most students in Collingwood on September 3rd, in addition to lowering your speed through these Community and School Safety Zones, please be mindful of all pedestrians who are choosing active transportation as their method of travel, whether walking, biking, scooting, etc.
We all deserve to get to school, work, and home safely!
About Community Safety Zones (CSZ) and School Safety Zones (SZ)
The implementation of CSZs and SZs are an important safety enhancement measure. CSZs and SZs are a special designation of a roadway section, as defined under the Highway Traffic Act (HTA). CSZs are sections of roadway where fines for traffic violations are increased by the implementation of the special designation through municipal by-law adoption. SZs in Ontario can be identified by a yellow sign with two pedestrians walking together and typical speed limits in a SZ are between 30 km/h and 40km/h. These decisions are based on industry best practices associated with CSZs and SZs as well as OTM Standards.
