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Mono mayor urges county to bill province for traffic safety tools

June 18, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

Dufferin County will soon have a pair of portable radar speed signs to be moved around and used throughout its road network.

Residents experience road safety concerns caused by motorists driving at excessive speeds, particularly within settlement and hamlet transition areas, Community Safety Zones, pedestrian activity areas, and corridors with vulnerable road users, such as agricultural equipment traffic.

These concerns are commonly associated with higher operating speeds on arterial and collector roadways as vehicles transition through rural communities and developed areas.

“As an upper-tier municipality, the county’s roadway network primarily functions as an arterial and collector transportation system intended to support regional mobility, emergency response, goods movement, agricultural operations, and winter maintenance activities,” according to a report to council.

“Due to the operational function of county roads, many traditional urban traffic calming measures such as speed humps, raised intersections, and permanent roadway closures are not considered operationally appropriate.”

Radar speed display signs and other feedback-type devices are effective traffic calming measures in such areas. They improve driver awareness and encourage speed reduction while maintaining roadway function.

Councillor Todd Taylor, Orangeville’s deputy mayor, said he’s aware the county has deployed Black CAT radar recorders. They’re devices that collect vehicle volume and speed information. But he continues to be frustrated with the need for increased safety in the county, so he’s in favour of buying the portable radar speed signs.

The radar signs could be deployed strategically based on operational review, collision history, speed data, Road Safety Audits, and in collaboration with OPP.

Taylor said he doesn’t often see safety measures being deployed on county thoroughfares on a general basis. And that’s an issue shared by Orangeville, he said.

“I really, really feel that we’ve just done nothing,” Taylor said.

Scott Burns, the county’s public works director, said quite a bit is actually done by Dufferin County in the way of traffic safety measures. Much of that is in road design work and refreshing and adjusting painted lines.

“There are different measure that you would use in an urban centre versus an arterial urban road,” Burns said, and added that the county will soon begin a feasibility study paired with a road safety master plan.

Those plans approach road safety in a more proactive manner as opposed to addressing issues by way of reactive answers, he said.

“This will give us some policy framework for how we’ll approach these things so hopefully we can quell the issues before they become an issue and before folks around this table hear about them,” Burns said.

Taylor asked if there is a vision as to how that might be accomplished.

“It’s your team,” Taylor said. “You get together, I assume, the engineers share their pinky rings with each other and they talk about here’s where the issues are.”

He asked about how the analysis will be undertaken, and if there’s a communications plan for how to best inform residents and drivers.

Burns said the document hasn’t been released, but there is a fair bit of such information available. A third party will also put eyes on the plan.

“We are looking at things through a slightly different lens through the road safety audit approach where it does expose all of the hazards that could be in any location,” Burns said.

The Road Safety Master Plan prioritizes lower-cost, evidence-based, and operationally compatible traffic calming measures prior to consideration of permanent roadway modifications or capital reconstruction projects.

Burns said guidance will be offered for such infrastructure as roundabouts, which have been recently discussed as a traffic calming measure suitable for Dufferin County.

Burns said two Black CATS have been deployed, and county officials and the public can see which areas have more traffic and which areas have incidents of high speed.

Coun. John Creelman, Mono’s mayor, said the province should pay for the portable radar speed signs and not the county. The crowd at Queen’s Park discontinued traffic safety cameras. And they announced money for speed bumps and “extra-large signs,” he said. “Which, of course, is irrelevant in some of the more challenging areas of Dufferin County.”

Creelman said the county should send the provincial government an invoice for any safety measures that are adopted.

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