Proof of vaccination is required at indoor town facilities. The province has released a plan to safely reopen Ontario and manage COVID-19 for the long-term. Please continue to follow all current public health measures.
In an ongoing effort to ensure Oakville’s residential streets are safe for all road users of all ages, the town has introduced the Neighbourhood Traffic Safety Program. The program will see the implementation of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras, and an increase in community safety zones and pedestrian crossovers, to address speeding and aggressive driving in Oakville’s residential neighbourhoods.
There are six components to the program, each complementing the other to support the overall program objective:
A Community Safety Zone (CSZ) is a section of a roadway designated through a by-law passed by Council to identify a segment of the road where public safety is of paramount concern. Community Safety Zones may include roadways near schools, day care centres, active parks, hospitals, and senior citizen residences, and may also be used for collision prone areas within a community.
The Highway Traffic Act (HTA) currently allows municipalities to designate road segments as CSZs where public safety is of special concern and certain HTA fines (including speeding) are doubled. In June 2019, Council approved a report which recommended that CSZs be implemented at every 40 km/hour zone fronting an elementary school on a major road.
In January 2021, Town Council voted to implement a plan to reduce the default speed limit from 50 km/hour to 40 km/hour on all local and minor collector roads. Currently in Oakville, the default speed limit on any road that is not signed is 50 km/hour. Council has directed staff to conduct a pilot study in three areas across town, and report back on findings in 2023.
Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) is an automated system that uses a camera and a speed measurement device to detect and capture images of vehicles travelling in excess of the posted speed limit.
ASE is designed to work in tandem with other road safety measures, such as traffic calming, community safety zones, speed display boards, education initiatives, and police enforcement, to help improve safety for drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, and our most vulnerable members of our population such as seniors and children.
Town Council recommended the use of 14 cameras to be installed and rotated through the town’s community safety zones beginning in summer 2022. Funding requirements for the ASE program will be presented to the 2022 Budget Committee for consideration.
When a vehicle exceeds the posted speed limit in an ASE area, the ASE system captures an image of the vehicle. A provincial offences officer reviews the image and issues a ticket. The ticket, including a digital copy of the image and an enlargement of the license plate, is mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle within 30 days of the offence.
Tickets are issued to the owner of the vehicle regardless of who was driving. No demerit points will be issued.
ASE is proven to effectively enforce speed limits, increase driver awareness and decrease injuries and fatalities. A number of municipalities across Ontario have already implemented ASE.
ASE is about safety. Everyone has likely exceeded the speed limit at one time or another, but with clear signage posted, ASE is the reminder we all need to slow down and help keep our communities safe, especially in areas where people of all ages tend to walk, run, bike and play.
Learn more about ASE including frequently asked questions, on the ASE Ontario website.
We are currently experiencing a high level of traffic calming applications and inquiries. As we work to mitigate the impact to services, please bear with us as the turnaround time for processing traffic calming requests, traffic enquiries and transportation development reviews will be temporarily delayed.
This fall, the town is surveying residents on streets that qualify for traffic calming based on speed surveys conducted in 2019 and 2020. New requests for speed surveys will be deferred to 2022.
To check if a speed survey has been conducted on your street recently, please review the Residential Speed Survey map.
Traffic calming is a measure available to the town that can be used to mitigate speeding in instances where higher speeds have been observed and conventional methods of speed deterrence, such as enforcement and education, have not been effective. Some examples of traffic calming include radar speed display signs, speed cushions and roundabouts.
To initiate a traffic calming process a candidate location must first satisfy Warrant 1 – 85th Percentile Speed or Warrant 2 - Traffic Volume. Warrant 1 is obtained following a 48-hour speed survey conducted in the spring or fall.
Warrant 1 requires 15 per cent of motorists to be driving at a speed greater than:
Warrant 2 is satisfied if the average daily traffic volumes exceeds the typical maximum volumes of:
In May 2018, the town initiated a study on potential traffic calming options for school zones on major collector and minor arterial roadways. The study identifies short-term and long-term measures for these sites. The recommended short-term measure is was to implement fixed (permanent) radar speed display signs (RSDS) at the following 20 locations in 2020.
The town's first pedestrian crossover was implemented in January 2017 at Navy Street and Church Street. The town’s Pedestrian Safety Program recommends over 170 pedestrian crossover locations be implemented across the town over the next 10-15 years.
Visit the pedestrian crossovers page to learn the proper way to use them.
One of the key planning goals from the Town’s transportation master plan, Switching Gears, is to provide a safe and efficient transportation system for all road users. The Town currently has various initiatives to improve traffic safety under the Neighbourhood Traffic Safety Program noted in this report, including education and outreach, network screening, and crossing guard programs. The Town also recognizes the emerging Vision Zero philosophy that is gaining momentum worldwide for eliminating traffic fatalities and severe injuries among all road users by providing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all. Vision Zero embraces the philosophy that all traffic deaths are preventable, and it is a shared responsibility amongst policymakers and designers to ensure a safety system for all road users.
A study to examine the town’s standing with respect to road safety performance and programs in light of the Vision Zero philosophy is underway. The findings and recommendations from this assignment will set the stage for guiding the development of a more detailed Vision Zero (or similar) program and action plan for Oakville.