Speed limits drop to 30 km/h on some residential streets Limit falls to 30/h in bid to make streets safer for pedestrians
New signs are going up and speed limits are going down in parts of old Toronto and East York starting today.
Many residential streets are seeing the top speed drop to 30 kilometres per hour, down from 40 km/h.
A total of 387 kilometres of roads in East York in the old City of Toronto will make the switch starting today. Some 4,400 new 30 km/h signs will be going up on residential streets.
One resident told CBC News he's happy to see the speed limit reduced.
"There's children all over the place here and you have to be careful," he said.
Toronto and East York community council unanimously voted for the change in June at a cost of $1.1 million. This followed the 2014 death of Georgia Walsh who was hit and killed http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-girl-7-dies-after-being-hit-by-vehicle-in-leaside-1.2709131 by a van at Millwood and McRae in Leaside.
Her death created a groundswell of support to bring down the speed limit.
Critics of the change say bringing down the speed limit also requires greater enforcement on local roads.
See also Toronto Star (June) http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2015/06/22/30-km-h-limits-likely-for-local-downtown-streets.html
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Anders Swanson