Road design, safety and Vision Zero

[danbrotherston]

We do know that speed limits do slow traffic. They doubly slow traffic if traffic is stuck behind a bus going slower.

But it's a moot point anyway, this applied only to residential streets, and most bus routes travel mostly along arterial and connector roads where the limit does not apply.

I’m thinking of streets like Westheights Dr. or Greebrook Dr., portions of which do have bus routes on them. It makes no sense to have a bus every 15 minutes piously obeying a 30km/h limit, followed by 15 minutes of traffic going through at 50km/h.

I think the lower the limit, compared to the design speed of the road, the less effective. Dropping a limit from 60 to 50 may well have a significant effect, but taking a road that is clearly designed for 50 and expecting traffic to drop to 30 with a bit of signage is not realistic. Now if the whole street were re-designed so it feels unsafe to go 40, you might get a better result.

Obviously design is more effective. But lowering speed limits is still effective in lower speeds. And no, there is value in having the bus go slower, because then things are slower for some time.

Anyway, I am pretty sure Westheights is a collector road...and in Kitchener anyway so it isn't affected by Waterloo's policy. And Westheights is only a short segment of the route...that's the point, the route would only be slightly affected. Most buses travel fairly slowly (like below 50) through residential areas already because you know...slightly better than average drivers.