Stephen Vance, Editor
I doubt that there are many of us who would enjoy sitting in our front yard while cars whizzed by at 90 kilometres per hour, but for some residents that is their reality. From talking to some homeowners on Highway 26 west of the urban area of Meaford on that stretch of the highway, from the outer fringe of the urban area through to Grey Road 112, the posted speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour (which we all know means actual speeds of 90, or even 100 kilometres per hour) should perhaps be revisited given the number of residential homes on each side of the highway.
True, there are residential homes dotted along the entire stretch of Highway 26 from Meaford through to Owen Sound, but as Sykes Street transitions back into Highway 26 heading west, for the first few kilometres there are a few small clusters of homes, in addition to fruit and vegetable stands and small businesses that drivers routinely turn into. The further away from the urban area you drive, the further apart the residential homes become (and the further the homes tend to be set back from the highway).
The current posted speed limits also increase gradually, from 50 kilometres per hour to 70, and then to 80, but some of the residents along the highway think that not just the 80 zone, but also the 70 zone come to soon, and I tend to agree.
Even as a driver, I find the speed along that stretch to be a little too quick, especially in summer when people are braking suddenly to pull off for some apples at a local fruit stand, or when drivers find the business address they were looking for a little too late.
The residents I’ve spoken to have used words like ‘dangerous’, and ‘scary’, and even from the limited exposure to the area that one gets from driving along that stretch of road from time to time, I don’t doubt that at times it can be.
Transport trucks travel that road along with every other type of vehicle from sporty convertibles to motorcycles, to pick-up trucks hauling boats. There’s a lot of traffic travelling past these houses, many of which are set not all that far back from the highway. I can imagine the challenge it can be to even leave your own driveway safely. I’m reminded of a joke that comedian Steven Wright used to tell about building his house on the median strip of a highway. “You don’t really notice, except I have to leave the driveway doing 60 miles per hour,” he’d joke. With just one lane of pavement in each direction, there’s little room to move, and little room for error, which is why it would make sense to lower the speed to 60 kilometres per hour.
Accidents are not uncommon on that stretch of road, and lowering the speed limit could certainly help reduce the number of accidents and close calls.
A year or so ago, the Ontario government was floating the idea of lowering the standard municipal speed limit from 50 kilometres per hour to 40. Safety of course was the primary concern, though the government stressed at the time that “Ontario’s roads are among the safest in North America”. Whether the standard speed limit should be reduced or not is a different argument for a different day, but when it comes to the stretch of highway in question, I think that there are enough residential homes, and enough small businesses to justify lowering the speed limit.
It might be a different story if there were a turning lane running along that entire stretch, as that would at least help with left turns into the driveways of homes or businesses, but even then, when the driver in front of you steps on their brakes suddenly to make a right turn into a driveway they almost missed at 80 kilometres per hour, your reflexes better be good.
I know some motorists might be annoyed if the speed limit were to be lowered, but to lower the speed limit from 80 kilometres per hour to 60 for a few kilometres will cost motorists literally just seconds of their precious time, which seems a fair trade to me if it means a little peace of mind for residents living along that stretch of highway, and if it means that everyone – motorists, property owners, and business owners alike are a little safer.
