Just goes to show that speed limits only work when they are enforced. Hmm who knew.

June 10th was 7 months ago; I haven't seen a cop there since. Line of sight is still an issue; they may have cut back the trees but now they've replaced them with massive snow piles. It's not that much fun turning onto Highland from several of the side streets, you just have to hope that some yahoo is not doing 70 as you make your turn because you're not going to see him coming.

Any established through road, whether its in a residential neigbourhood or not suffers from this problem.Domano,Gladstone,Tyner,University Way,Foothills,Cranbrook Hill,Highland,Austin Rd all have posted speeds that the majority fail to adhere to.Its 60 KM/hr not MPH and STOP signs mean just that stop,not slow down and whip around the corner or stop 8-10 ft into the intersection.These are the same people that can't merge or yield.

Part of the problem is the speed limit is 50 km, not 60. I have been on and worked on most of the streets in Prince George. Highland Drive is probably the worst for poor sight lines and corners that slope the wrong way.
I urge any one to try to back up onto Highland Drive out of a driveway and see how fun it is. I know that you can back into a driveway which isn't much fun either. You can't drive 50 km on Highland without someone on your bumper. 60 -70 kmph seems to be the norm even under icy conditions. Maybe whom ever did up the graph should spend a few hours practicing turning off the side streets and entering and exiting driveways.

In my opinion Mr. Stanker's assessment is ignoring several issues:

Some years ago Local Truck Traffic Only signs were located at both ends of Highland Drive. After truck traffic increased the signs were removed - by the City, I assume.

Furthermore, he totally ignores one of the prime contributors to the speeding problem:

a) Highland Drive has a considerable drop in elevation when travelling towards Foothills. NOBODY wants to brake (!) in order to not exceed the posted 50km/h speed limit.

b) Highland Drive has a considerable rise in elevation when travelling in the opposite direction. Drivers (especially trucks) increase their speed in excess of the 50km/h posted speed limit in order to maintain speed when tackling the hill.

Police has indicated that it won't issue tickets unless vehicles exceed the speed limit by more than 20km/h.

Educated conclusion: The posted speed limit is not LOW enough.

Needless to say the Councillors readily adopted the report as presented, what else could they do?

This fall loaded logging trucks pulling trailers were observed on an almost daily basis on Highland Drive. Were raw logs being delivered to some residents on this residential street?

Well, the City once again failed to address the real problems, imho.

Prince George.

Lets see. Problem is drivers disobeying the posted speed limit. So a reduction in the posted speed limit will solve the problem?? Why would a lower posted speed limt solve anything. Signs are only as good as the people who obey and enforce them.
Sounds like the residents are really unhappy with where they live. Possibly a move is in order for them to somewhere in a Cul de Sac.

Prince George.

Lets see. Problem is drivers disobeying the posted speed limit. So a reduction in the posted speed limit will solve the problem?? Why would a lower posted speed limt solve anything. Signs are only as good as the people who obey and enforce them.
Sounds like the residents are really unhappy with where they live. Possibly a move is in order for them to somewhere in a Cul de Sac.

Changing the speed limit? Good luck. Clear the cobwebs of yer memory and think back a few years when they wanted to change the speed limit on Foothills from 15th to the bridge. No residential buildings facing said blvd. But still the hue and cry went up and nothing was done. I remarked then as I will now that that scenario mirrors why nothing ever gets done in this country.

You know, a few people met in Charlottetown back in 1867. Things were going great till then. We avoided a tea party like Boston had and decided to create a country by begging the English to grant us our freedom.

They did, and ever since then not a thing has been accomplished.

I mean, if we had only known, eh?!

Doogood, I know it's a bit hard to understand why 50km/h does not REALLY mean 50km/h! Although it SHOULD! Why post a limit when there are NO consequences when drivers ignore up to a point???

It goes like this: A speed limit is posted at 50km/h. The police will not write any actual tickets (that result in monetary fines) unless one exceeds the limit by more than 20km/h. Therefore drivers can without fear regularly travel as fast as 70km/h.

Now: A speed limit is posted at 30km/h. The police will not write any actual tickets (that result in monetary fines) unless one exceeds the limit by more than 20km/h.

Result: Fines will now result if someone goes faster than 50km/h! That may slow some more drivers down, once word gets around!

50km/h is the limit posted on Highland Drive. 50km/h is a safe speed, often road conditions are slippery and even that 50km/h may be too fast, or when children are crossing the street as there are no marked crosswalks.

The residents know that 60, 65, or even 70 and often 80 and 85 are NOT safe and they asked the city politely and with sufficient evidence that speeding above the set limit is a daily/nightly problem.

People are at a loss why nobody seems to get it.

Simple enough, eh?

"Sounds like the residents are really unhappy with where they live."

This has nothing to do with happiness and everything to do with enforcing traffic laws! I can't believe that somebody would sympathize with the law breakers rather than the law abiding residents.

Sad state of affairs.

It is also quite counterproductive to suggest that residents move! After they have moved the new owners of the houses would be facing the same unsafe speeding situation!

How would moving have solved anything?

It is the people that break traffic laws who must be made to obey the law. That is where the buck stops!

Wow the NIMBYs are out in force! Can anyone please show me a list of accidents caused by trucks (heck make that ALL accidents) on highland drive that make it so special from dozens of other streets in town?

Interceptor
Come on up and try turning left off of Carleton Place on to Highland. Nobody is saying there aren't other areas in the city that have the same problem.

As Prince George said there are some fairly sharp corners,lots of driveways and slopes that are unique to Highland.
I don't live on Highland or one of the side streets.

City hall sees Highland drive as the priority speeding problem?? I suggest they take a few drives down the Queensway now and then. I forgot, it doesn't work as well when folks flash their lights to warn others. Maybe we need a study on Highland Drive residents to find out if there is something in the air up there.

Prince George,

I do agree with you on your points regarding speed limit and enforcement. The point i was trying to get across was that for the limts to work the RCMP need to enforce them, especially in problem areas such as Highland Drive. I do find it hard to believe that an officer will not pull you over unless you are going 20km/hr over the posted limit. Who made that statement? Perhaps the residents should approach the RCMP for regular enforcement.

Traffic calming methods should be the other approach. Many streets in the lower mainland were begining to be used to avoid traffic. These streets now have traffic circles. A good approach to alleviate dangerous sitelines. Forget about lower posted speed limit. pfftt!

They will pull you over but unless you are going more than 20 over you will get an educational talking to, a verbal reminder to smarten up.

Good point about traffic circles! They work. This residential street is just not suitable for that.

Just observed a white work pickup doing about 8o, perhaps faster coming down the hill.

The residents have had meetings with everybody, the RCMP, City, etc. It's apparently impossible to have any impact on this situation.

That does not mean that one can not comment on an engineering report and where it misses the main points.

After all, we are the people affected and we pay taxes too.

Maybe we need to have someone pull a life-like dummy across the road in front of some of these speeders to show them that they aren't driving safely. If they get all shook up because they think they just ran over somebody, maybe that would make them think a little bit more.

Give More. You build the dummy and I'll pull it. Only problem is we'll probably wind up in jail.