More city staff may be needed as demand for traffic calming rises in London neighbourhoods

London councillors receive many complaints regarding traffic within the city, but officials say more staff is needed to address residents' concerns.

Dangerous speeds on residential streets is one of the most common complaints received by city councillors, but the department tasked with evaluating applications and designing traffic calming infrastructure is operating “lean.”

On Monday, the Infrastructure and Corporate Services Committee (ICSC) considered a motion by Coun. Corrine Rahman to review and report back with potential improvements to the process that receives traffic calming petitions and how staff communicate decisions to residents.

“We have a lot of work to do in this city to make residents feel confident enough to be able to use all forms of transportation and transit,” explained Rahman. “So that is [why] I think more traffic calming will be helpful.”

Coun. Susan Stevenson agreed that neighbours who follow the process to petition city hall for traffic calming must be kept better informed about city hall’s decision and timeline, “They’ve heard it gets improved, but then years can go by and it’s not implemented [so] there’s a sense of frustration.”

Council approved a Budget Business Case to hire a temporary position within the engineering department to address the workload created when the provincial government eliminated speed cameras in favour of more traffic calming in school zones.

However, the two-person team (plus one temporary position) that evaluates requests for traffic calming and designs the infrastructure might need additional resources to meet the expectations of councillors.

“It is a small team. A lean team, and we try to work as effectively and efficiently as possible,” explained Doug Macrae, director of Transportation and Mobility. “That said, we’re hearing that it’s a priority for the city so we’re going to see how we can improve the service.”

“I think it goes without saying that if you need more resources, ask,” said Coun. Sam Trosow. “You will find a very sympathetic council.”

Coun. Hadleigh McAlister added a clause to Rahman’s motion directing city staff bring back options for additional resourcing within the traffic calming team.

Members of ICSC unanimously supported the motion requesting a future report about improving the application process, communications, and municipal resources for implementing traffic calming.

“We had this debate at the last multi-year budget, and it’s not something that’s gone away,” McAlister told CTV News after the meeting. “We’re definitely still hearing a lot of concerns about [speeding], and as the city grows, traffic’s part of that.”

Council will make a final decision March 3.