Speed bumps
Residents want cars to drive through their neighbourhoods quietly and safely. The city gives them speed bumps. Emergency response times get longer, cars get damaged, plowing is harder. We need better solutions.
Where I stand
Speed bumps also send a mixed signal. The bump forces cars to roughly 20 km/h. The posted speed limit on the same street is 40 or 50. Drivers don’t know which to follow.
There are three real solutions, and we should use all of them: a speed limit that matches the safe speed, enforcement that gives the limit teeth, and traffic calming that makes the road slow cars by geometry.
On the speed limit. Most neighbourhood streets should be posted at 30 km/h, not 50 (see Walkability). Signs and paint, the cheapest change a city can make.
On enforcement. Automatic enforcement was legalized in late 2024, but Saint John hasn’t deployed any cameras yet. The hold-up is revenue: without a sharing agreement, the city pays for the cameras and the province collects the fines. Push for both: deployment, and a fair share.
On traffic calming. When sign and enforcement aren’t enough, change the road itself so the natural speed is the desired speed:
- Raised crosswalks and raised intersections that slow cars while giving pedestrians priority.
- Curb extensions that shorten crossing distances and make streets feel narrower.
- Road diets that convert a surplus travel lane into a bike lane or wider sidewalk.
- Narrower travel lanes (2.7 to 3 metres instead of 3.5) that slow traffic by geometry.
- Chicanes and mini-roundabouts on local streets where speed bumps used to go in.
I won’t tear up the speed bumps already in place. They paid for themselves the day they were installed. But Saint John should stop building new ones.
What I will push for on council
- 30 km/h on neighbourhood streets so the legal speed matches the safe speed (see Walkability).
- Both officer-based and automated speed enforcement on streets with documented problems. Push the province for a revenue-sharing agreement that lets the city fund cameras from the fines they generate.
- No new speed bumps. Use modern traffic calming on every new project and rebuild: raised crosswalks at schools, curb extensions on residential streets, narrower lanes on rebuilds.
- Existing speed bumps stay until reconstruction.