City staff will research potential safety improvement measures on Dawson Road that aren’t a Designated Truck Route (DTR).

A motion put forward by At Large’s Mark Bentz was separated with these paragraphs passing 7-5:

Administration review and report on potential safety improvement measures that could be implemented in absence of a Designated Truck Route or weight restrictions on Dawson Road not limited to speed reductions, signage and road design considerations, including the use of additional turning lanes.

AND THAT Administration include their recommendation of improvements and costs associated with those improvements

A 10-2 vote followed on the remainder of the motion, which allows staff to look at ways to improve motorist safety on Ministry of Tranportation (MTO) controlled sections of Dawson Road within city limits and report back on any recommendations and possible paths forward to lobby for such improvements.

“For the last four or five years, this council and our administration have had a single focus on that road which is the DTR,” Bentz stated. “This is a way for council to say to administration ‘safety is important on that road to us, we’ve had some concerns voiced, let’s deal with them.’ Now you may or may not think you understand all of the engineering features that can be added to a road. I would much rather hear from our engineers on that rather than people around the table.”

Fellow At Large Councillor Trevor Giertuga questioned the timing of the motion.

“If it were me, and I thought that further traffic calming measures would have increased safety, I would have brought them forward years ago in conjuction with the Designated Truck Route. I wouldn’t have waited until six months before an election to bring it forward,” Giertuga added.

The decision to establish a Designated Truck Route was ratified by council in March of 2019, but two iterations of the by-law to follow through with this have been voted down at city council.