What I’m hearing

Concerns from Ward 9

When residents write to me through the contact form and consent to publish, their messages appear here. If you have something to say, the form is on the homepage.

1. A Longwoods Road resident May 12, 2026

   Asking for a lower speed limit on Longwoods Road through Ward 9, citing safety concerns and tragic fatalities including a child.

   Matt’s reply May 12, 2026

   Thanks for reaching out and voicing your concern. As you know, I also live on Longwoods Road, just down from the horrific tragedy that occurred on December 16, 2024. It’s not something that any of us will forget.

   Our goal here is the same: a road where what happened to an innocent child doesn’t happen again. But speed limits are not the cause or the solution here, and I want to walk through my reasoning.

   What happened that day.

   The bus was stopped. The red lights were flashing. The stop arm was extended. A courier in a 2023 Honda Pilot drove straight past it. The child had been told, correctly, that those flashing lights and that extended arm meant every driver on the road would stop. London Police investigated for six months. Two people were charged: the courier, for the bypass, and the bus driver, for letting him off the bus without confirming traffic had stopped.

   Two separate, independent failures of an absolute rule. Neither one is a speed-limit question.

   Why a lower limit would not have changed this outcome.

   A posted speed limit sets the upper bound for drivers who intend to obey the rules of the road. It is meaningful for the careful driver. It is not meaningful for a driver willing to pass a stopped school bus with its lights flashing. A driver who commits that violation with a posted 80km/h limit will commit it at any posted speed, and probably won’t slow down either. The problem with the courier was not his speed. It was that he blew past a stopped bus with its lights flashing. That’s not something a lower speed limit can solve.

   Lowering the speed limit of the former Highway 2 corridor would not have changed the outcome on December 16, 2024. That is the hard truth.

   More broadly, studies on two-lane roads have found that slower lead vehicles, larger speed differentials, platooning, and restricted passing opportunities can increase driver frustration and overtaking intent. That is especially concerning on our stretch of Longwoods, with its many driveways, curves, and side roads, and it is another reason I am cautious about lowering posted limits as a general policy.

   What would actually move the needle.

   The interventions that target what actually went wrong are real, and most of them are within the scope of city council.

   • Stop-arm cameras on London school buses. Ontario authorized municipalities to use and prosecute with these in 2020. A petition launched by Charles and Rachel Bakker after the Longwoods tragedy gathered over 2,100 signatures and called for measures including red light cameras. The petition was addressed directly to local politicians and London’s police chief. The city installed a speed radar sign in response, but has not acted on the camera proposal. This is the kind of targeted deterrent I would push the city to pursue.
   • The school bus stop relocation. The school bus service already adjusted the route, and students are no longer crossing Longwoods. This is the type of intervention that actually targets the failure mode: address the root and don’t rely on the competence and reliability of drivers.
   • Police enforcement of the rules already on the books. Monitoring stop-arm violations and corridor speeding are operational decisions a councillor does not direct. What a councillor does have influence over is the police operating budget and four of seven Police Service Board appointments. My goal is enforcement of what is already in place.

   Where I stand.

   Lowering speed limits, especially on major roads and arteries, is contrary to my commitment to improving mobility. Frustrated drivers can become dangerous drivers. My focus is on efficient road travel, proper and complete safety measures for our children, and enforcement of the safety laws we already have.

   Matt Millar