What should London do about dangerous driving on residential streets?

City councillors question why more isn’t being done to address the issue. CTV’s Daryl Newcombe has the story.

Excessive speed, rolling stops, short cuts — most Londoners are fed up with the dangerous driving that plagues residential streets across the city.

But many drivers continue the bad behaviours - unabated.

“They just gun it straight down here,” said Andrew Roberts as he points down two blocks of Waterloo Street in the SoHo neighbourhood.

He and his neighbours have lined their boulevards with lawn signs imploring drivers to slow down.

However, only a fraction of the drivers witnessed by CTV News on Wednesday afternoon obeyed the 40km/h speed limit on the residential street.

Roberts said cut-thru traffic avoiding the construction and congestion on Wellington Street and Horton Street is worst during rush hour.

“They’re trying to find the fastest way to get home and cutting through residential areas at excessive speeds because of the backlog and bottlenecking (of) the traffic,” he explained.

Residents of Waterloo Street are not alone in their concern.

At the most recent meeting of the Infrastructure and Corporate Services Committee at city hall, several councillors expressed their frustration about dangerous driving and cut-thru traffic along residential streets in their wards.

“The cut through traffic is getting worse, and worse and worse,” lamented Coun. Sam Trosow, who recently hosted a public meeting about traffic safety in the Old North neighbourhood.

Coun. Peter Cuddy expressed concern about drivers that pass by schools in the area of northeast London that he represents, “It’s an issue of people speeding, and careless driving.”

The discussion about dangerous driving in residential neighbourhoods was sparked by a request from neighours in Old South for a school crossing guard at the intersection of Wortley Road and Emery Street.

Coun. McAlister said he’s seen drivers pass a school bus with its lights on picking up children in front of his home in east London.

In recent years, city hall has targeted hotspots for dangerous driving with a variety of tools including traffic calming speed humps, photo-radar near schools and speed limit reductions to 40 km/h on most residential streets.

McAlister expressed hope that a reconstitution of the traffic division within the London Police Service (LPS) will also curb some of the behaviours.

“I hope LPS is listening,” he told the committee. “We obviously need those traffic infractions dealt with.”

Roberts acknowledges that the dangerous speeds and other traffic violations on Waterloo Street are part of a citywide problem that has only gotten worse since the COVID-19 pandemic, “They just use this place as a racetrack.”

He’d like to see city hall develop effective strategies that could apply to neighbourhoods citywide—including SoHo. “I think the city needs to wake up and realize that this is a bigger issue. It’s not just me. It’s not just one neighbour.”

Councillor David Ferreira, whose ward includes the SoHo neighbourhood, recently sent a letter to civic administration seeking ideas to addressing several of the safety concerns raised by Roberts and his neighbours.