Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
April 2021
Re: “Should speed limits be lowered across Barrie? Councillor pushes for 10 km/h reduction,” Chris Simon, Barrie Advance, 30 March 2021): While this is certainly not the only reason for speeding, one issue that constantly frustrates me as I travel across the city is the lack of synchronization of the traffic lights along the major routes.
It’s extremely frustrating, even if you are not in a hurry, to have three intersections in close proximity, and have to stop for a red light at all three of them. Sometimes you see the light ahead turning yellow, just as you are starting to move from the previous light. This stifles the flow of traffic, and certainly can’t be good for the environment, as cars are forced to repeatedly accelerate and decelerate.
I believe it also encourages drivers to speed to try to beat the next traffic light, which could be one reason for the excessive speeds.
In cities like Hamilton, the traffic lights on major routes are synchronized so precisely that if you drive the speed limit, you can drive from one end of town to the other, in normal traffic, hitting few, if any, red lights along the way.
Obviously, school zones, community parks and residential streets are a different story, but synchronizing the traffic lights along major routes should be one of the traffic-calming options considered.
