Can all our drivers out there do us a favour, and just slow down?
It seems that commuters everywhere are in a race to get to their intended destination.
While higher-than-normal speeds on the 401 are a way of life for many, we do not think this should extend into quiet residential villages.
These are the ones such as Breslau and Conestogo that are simply in the way of drivers trying to get somewhere else — never mind that in Breslau, these drivers are zooming through a quiet little town, or in Conestogo, these drivers are speeding past a school zone.
Woolwich councillors are routinely faced with the task of hearing about speeding problems somewhere within the township.
The problem is so bad, in fact, that it wasn’t long ago the township actually invested in its own traffic monitoring equipment — equipment that comes with its own sign that shows our lead-foot drivers just how fast they are really going.
This week, we were reminded of the situation in Breslau, where the speedy drivers have become so problematic that schoolchildren no longer walk a short distance to their school, because the school board does not deem it to be a safe practice.
The vast majority of local residents were concerned enough to sign a petition, asking councillors to install speed humps on the street that snakes through the heart of the village. That request alone tells a tale, for if the residents themselves are willing to put up with the annoyance of traffic-calming measures, then speed is indeed a problem.
In cases like this, it doesn’t really seem to matter whether police come by for a temporary enforcement blitz. Once they leave, the dangerous driving continues.
It’s really a symptom of two things. The first is our society’s continuing obsession with doing more things in less time. The second is our inability to care about communities that we don’t have an immediate connection to.
It’s a fair assumption that the majority of drivers who are speeding through Breslau don’t live there. They are on their way to Cambridge, to the 401, to the many other places they need to get to right now.
They are forgetting one thing. They aren’t driving on a highway, the kind of road that goes out of its way to separate pedestrians from vehicles.
They are driving through a village. One that has seniors, families and children walking along the nearby sidewalks. A community that doesn’t need to hear the squealing of brakes — or worse, the cries of a child that has been struck, or to live in the constant fear of something this tragic from happening.
Woolwich Township will do its part, and complete a study that highlights what the residents of Breslau already know — that Woolwich Street is, all too often, a speedway rather than a residential street.
But, even with all the traffic-calming measures in the world, we fear that there may be little that can be done to change the attitudes of drivers that are now firmly entrenched.
That, of course, is a tragedy waiting to happen.