Guelph businesses call on city to make temporary stoplight permanent

Some locals are calling for temporary traffic lights to be returned to The Ward in Guelph. CTV’s Karis Mapp finds out why.

Some businesses in Guelph are hoping the city will green light their request to put in permanent traffic calming measures.

Temporary traffic lights were installed along Victoria Road South between College Avenue and Florence Lane in 2024.

However, last week, they were removed.

Now some businesses are asking the city to consider installing permanent lights to make the neighbourhood safer.

“It’s much more efficient,” said Will Fisher, a terminal manager at the bulk product transportation company PDI.

“The traffic flow operates better with our trucks getting in and out. We’re very large and quite heavy and it allows our drivers to leave the yard safely.”

The temporary lights had been set up in front of PDI, and the business immediately noticed the benefits.

“If we’re coming out of here in rush hour, it can be a five minute wait to get out,” Fisher said.

“Traffic comes flying down the hill over there and you’re sometimes taking your life in your own hands trying to get out of our yard,” he added. “You watch people come in and out [of nearby retail properties] and it’s a danger zone.”

Other nearby business also shared similar stories with CTV News.

“We liked [the lights] because we could go out and it just made it easier instead of waiting in traffic,” said Orazio Peluso, owner of The Real Deal Sports Bar & Billiards. “Sometimes you wait almost 10 minutes to get out of the parking lots.”

Peluso added his voice to the chorus of people asking the city to reconsider the safety measure.

“I want those lights back ASAP.”

A sign of the times

In a bid to convince the city, a sign has been set up outside of PDI reading, “Return the Lights. Agree? Join our efforts.”

“I think the sign went up Friday,” Fischer said. “It was our owner that spearheaded getting that set up. He wanted us to see if we could do something to support the community, the safety in the area and, of course, our employees coming and going out of our facility.”

The sign encourages residents in favour of the lights to email them a [e-mail].

“The response we’ve been getting from the community has been almost 100 per cent supportive and [are] shocked that they even took them down,” Fisher said.

The plan is to collect all the messages of support and present them to city council.

CTV News reached out to the City of Guelph but did not hear back by our deadline.

“It’s all about safety. We want our employees and our neighbors safe,” Fisher said.