April 5, 2023 at 12:09 am
A motion by Bayfield District Councilor Bill Whetstone asking staff to submit a report on the potential for speed reductions in the village was passed at this week’s Blue Water Council meeting.
Whetstone said there was little debate.
“There was little debate at this point as the motion was essentially for staff to bring back a report on the feasibility of reducing the speed limit in Bayfield Village to 30km/h. It was granted without objection Passed unanimously,” Whetstone said.
Whetstone noted the change would only be made on residential roads in the village, not Highway 21. The current speed limit is fifty kilometers per hour.
Whetstone added that there has been some discussion about possibly looking at the rest of Bluewater.
“There’s been some discussion about potentially looking at the rest of Bluewater, and there’s also been a motion to see if it’s feasible to do some kind of slowdown in the rest of Bluewater as well. So it’ll be interesting when it comes back,” Whetstone added.
Whetstone said one of the reasons for reducing the speed limit from the current 50km/h to 30km/h was the lack of footpaths in the village. He said he would not be surprised if some other villages decided to reduce the speed limit to 30km/h where there are no pavements and 40km/h where there are pavements.
Whetstone said some councilors had some concerns about how it would work, with some under the impression that the speed reduction would apply to Highway 21, but that wasn’t the case.