Speed Reduction on Local Roads

In 2025/2026,  the Town explored reducing speed limits on local roads from 50km/h to 30km/h to improve safety for road users, including drivers and people who walk, bike, or ride a scooter.

Public engagement

In fall 2025, the Town sought community input on lowering speed limits on local streets (excluding collector, arterial, and provincial roads) and received 981 responses to an online survey. Only 32% supported a 30 km/h limit across all local roads, but many highlighted specific streets where lower speeds were needed. As a result, Council opted to implement targeted speed limit reductions.

Updated Streets and Traffic Bylaw

In June 2026, Council has adopted updates to the Streets and Traffic Bylaw to reduce speeds in key areas in Sidney and make speed limits on local roads clearer and more enforceable. The updated bylaw organizes all speed limits into a simple schedule covering roads, lanes, and zones, such as school zones. It implements speed reductions of 30 km/h on several roads in Sidney (such as Mills Road East) and includes nearby streets and cul-de-sacs to ensure consistent speed limits within neighbourhoods. Council also approved 20 km/h speed limits on roads classified as lanes.

This approach to speed limit reductions creates more consistent neighbourhood speed limits while maintaining a 50 km/h default on remaining local roads.

Next steps

In 2026, the Town plans to undertake a traffic and bike use study to better understand how Bowerbank Bikeway Corridor is being used and how traffic patterns have changed on the surrounding roads. Once that information in available, Council will consider whether to reduce the speed limit on the Bowerbank Bikeway Corridor to 30 km/h and whether to reduce the speed limit on Resthaven Drive between Mills Road and McDonald Park Road to 40 km/h.