Speed limit will drop on major road in Whitby

A section of one of Whitby’s busiest roads will see a speed limit reduction as part of Durham Region’s community road safety plan.

Brock Street, which runs north to south from Taunton Road to Port Whitby, will see a drop in the speed limit to 40 km/h on the part of the road closest the lake.

The speed limit will only fall on the stretch of Brock Street from Victoria Street to Water Street as part of a plan to reduce the entire Port Whitby area to a 40 km/h community safety zone.

This is because “Aggressive driving, including speeding, was identified as one of eight emphasis areas in Durham’s Vision Zero Strategic Road Safety Action Plan, which aims to reduce and ultimately eliminate all fatalities and injuries caused by collisions on our road system,” the Region wrote.

“Speed is a contributing factor in approximately one-third of fatal collisions in Canada. Reducing speed is one of the best ways to reduce the frequency and severity of collisions in our community. Speed limits are not guidelines – they are laws,” they continued.

New community safety zones are also set to include automated speed enforcement cameras which read speeders’ licence plates and send them a ticket in the mail. Such cameras have recently rolled out in Ajax, Oshawa and Pickering though they’ve not proven too popular. Several have been vandalized since their introduction with some nearly completely destroyed.

The Brock Street speed limit is set to change Sept. 3.