SD&G – Drivers throughout the United Counties of SD&G will be met with digital speed signs this fall.
The county is buying six signs – one for each municipality – in order to curb speeding, especially in built up areas and villages.
The signs flash your current speed on a digital board and also have strobe lights if you’re too heavy on the gas pedal.
County CAO Tim Simpson told Cornwall Newswatch the signs, which cost about $3,000 a piece, are going to be ordered in the next couple of weeks. There was $20,000 in this year’s budget for the project.
South Glengarry Infrastructure Services General Manager Ewen MacDonald has also been working on the project as part of the county road managers group.
“All six municipalities are participating so we’re hoping to have some economies of scale with the purchase of the units. We are hoping to have them ready for deployment this fall,” MacDonald told township council earlier this month.
Each township is buying additional units. In all, there will be 15 units throughout the county.
“I think some municipalities are planning to do more ‘permanent installs’ with their units, and, some are taking the same approach as us (portable units),” Transportation Director Ben de Haan told CNW.
CAO Simpson said each municipality will decide where the portable signs should be set up on a case by case basis, such as where they are receiving complaints or where there are hamlets or villages.
“This is a great example of intermunicipal cooperation. Our goal is to make the travelling public more aware of their speeds while driving, to increase public safety and provide the O.P.P. with an additional enforcement tool,” Simpson told CNW.
