Pickering traffic calming is getting a new framework, and the City wants residents to help identify where road-safety concerns are happening before the guidelines are finalized.
The City of Pickering has opened a public survey and an interactive map as it develops new Neighbourhood Traffic Calming Measures Guidelines. Residents can use the tools to describe their experiences on local streets, pinpoint a concern on the map and upload a photograph that gives City staff more context.
Feedback is open until September 30, 2026, through the City’s Let’s Talk Pickering traffic-calming page.
What residents can report
The engagement is intended to show how neighbourhood streets are functioning from the perspective of people who use them every day. Residents can identify locations where speeding, traffic volume or another road-safety issue is a concern and explain what they have observed.
That local input will be considered alongside technical data as Pickering creates a clearer process for evaluating future requests. The City says it receives many traffic-calming requests from neighbourhoods each year and wants the new guidelines to establish a more transparent and consistent system for assessing concerns, setting priorities and choosing suitable measures.
Traffic calming can include physical changes to a street, pavement markings, signs and other traffic-management treatments intended to encourage slower driving. The broader goal is to improve safety for people travelling on foot, by bicycle and in vehicles.
Guidelines will update a 2003 policy
Pickering’s current Traffic Calming Policy dates to 2003 and was introduced through the Safer Streets Traffic Management Strategy. The proposed guidelines are expected to modernize that approach, reflect current industry practices and allow traffic calming to be considered more proactively as new neighbourhoods are planned.
Under the City’s notice, the guidelines would apply to eligible local roads, collector roads and Type C arterial roads that fall under Pickering’s jurisdiction. They would not cover roads owned and managed by Durham Region.
That distinction matters for residents using the map. Major routes including Kingston Road, Whites Road and Brock Road are Regional roads and are outside Pickering’s municipal traffic-calming program. Concerns involving Regional roads may need to be directed to the Region of Durham instead.
Mayor Kevin Ashe said residents’ firsthand knowledge can help the City understand where concerns exist and how streets are operating. In its announcement, the City said community observations would be combined with technical information to support decisions about safer and better-connected neighbourhoods as Pickering grows.
How to participate
Residents can complete the online survey, add one or more locations to the interactive map and provide supporting details before the September 30 deadline. The consultation does not mean every reported location will automatically receive a particular treatment; instead, the submissions will help shape the criteria and process used to review future requests.
The City announced the consultation on September 10, following a notice dated September 9. Anyone planning to participate should review the project page for the survey, mapping tool and any additional engagement updates.
Sources: City of Pickering; Let’s Talk Pickering
