Public Engagement: Traffic Calming Policy Under Review

Today, the City of St. John’s is launching a two-week public engagement process to educate residents about the traffic calming policy review, and to collect feedback to help shape a revised policy.

“Traffic calming is the use of physical traffic management techniques that aim to reduce the impacts of traffic on neighbourhood areas, parks, schools, and community centres,” said Councillor Maggie Burton, lead for Transportation. “Traffic safety is a concern for many residents, and we receive numerous requests for traffic calming every year. Before we finalize updates to our policy, we want to open the conversation online, with a goal to improve the management of traffic calming requests.”

For any given street to be eligible for traffic calming, it must pass all eligibility criteria set in the policy. Eligible streets are then scored and ranked to determine their priority for implementation of traffic calming measures. You can read about the full process on the Engage page.

The current Traffic Calming Policy, introduced in 2011, was developed to handle numerous requests from residents on issues related to speeding, high non-local traffic volume, and inappropriate driving behaviors. Since then, there have been some changes in the project approval process and residents’ involvement, which need to be formalized. Improvements in technical scoring is also being included following the policy review.

“There are multiple ways for people to learn more, participate, and to have their say in the traffic calming policy review,” said Councillor Burton.

Residents are encouraged visit EngageStJohns.ca until February 7 to:

• Learn about 12 technical elements for the policy update
• Complete the online surveys
• Review Frequently Asked Questions 

People who do not have online access can call 311 or 754-CITY (2489) to speak to a member of the project team or send their feedback via email to engage@stjohns.ca.

For further background, review City Council’s discussion about the traffic calming policy during public meetings in March 2021 and December 2021.