Hit the breaks

Brett Thoms
Shawville July 22, 2022
New stop signs have been installed in three locations in Shawville. Being new, some drivers are blowing right through them.
The new signs are located at Rectory Rd. and John Dale Rd., Argue St. and Elm St. and a new four way stop at Victoria Ave. and Elizabeth Ave. near the post office.
Mayor Bill McCleary of Shawville explained that during the last municipal election speeding was the biggest complaint he and the new council heard from residents.
“There’s not a whole lot of ways to fix that, ‘’ said McCleary. “You can put up speed bumps. I don’t like speed bumps. You could have the cops watch your streets, and we’ve tried that before. And yeah, they’ll ticket a couple of people and then in three weeks people forget and go back to doing the same thing, or you can put up stop signs.”
McCleary said he expects some long-time residents to not notice the signs at first and will ask the SQ to be lenient with people at first.
“You drive somewhere for 35 years and all of a sudden there’s a stop sign, ‘’ said McCleary. “ It’s subconscious, I guess you don’t even see the sign. You’ve done that for years and years and years and been conditioned that there’s no signs.”
McCleary said there is a growing awareness of the signs on Facebook and they’ve also put signs advising drivers of the new signs in front of the intersections.
“It’s not a dangerous intersection or anything,” said McCleary. “It’s just to try and get people to slow down. So if you do blow through it 30 or 40 kilometres an hour, it’s not a big deal, but they will eventually catch on,” concluded McCleary.