counting on cootes

Some analysis on stats from previous article:

185 vehicles recorded
108 travelling below the 50 km-h speed limit
63 at 50-59 km-h
8 at 60-69 km-h
6 at 70-79 km-h

As Percentages

• below or at 50 km/h 58%
• above limit (up to 59 km/h) 34%
• 10-19 km/h over limit 4%
• 20 to 29 km/h over limit 3%

Note from article:

"Because the auxiliary officers and speed sign are highly visible, drivers tend to lower their speed at a Speedwatch site."

So it's probably safe to assume that these numbers are low. The location is also not as likely to get high speeds compared to Cootes further east, where the roadway becomes more of a divided expressway (i.e. no businesses or driveways, or intersections, just woods and marsh). The police were only clocking eastbound vehicles at Thorpe Street, so prior to the 80km/h zone).

Just past Thorpe Street (148 m) is a traffic light, which may also help to account for the vehicles going slow (under the limit).

If we take traffic count estimates for Cootes (27,000 according to latest City estimates) and extrapolate these very conservative numbers of speeders going 10 to 20 km/h over the limit (7%), we can see that Cootes has at least 1,890 speeders each day.

Now back to the reason for watching the speeding: the large number of pedestrians and cyclists using the level crossing at Sanders Blvd/McMaster University.

So the question becomes: are we willing to slow down and make the streets safer for other users (people using sustainable modes of transportation, the kind of people the city purports to encourage)? or are we addicted to speed at any cost?