The traffic department can't move fast enough to slow down Hamilton's side streets.

Last year, the city cut the speed limit from 50 km/h — the default unsigned maximum — to 40 km/h on 250 residential streets, often around schools but also by neighbourhood request. Just a few years ago, only "a handful" of such changes would be made per year, said traffic operations manager Martin White.

Last year also saw more speed humps and "knock-down" sticks installed, as well as 103 "ladder" crossings added to intersections — more pedestrian-friendly paint jobs than in the previous two years combined.

All that work only took care of about a third of the 900 resident requests for traffic safety changes in 2015, triple the average in years past.

"We just can't keep up," said White, who successfully appealed to council during budget deliberations to add two extra traffic safety technologists to help handle the backlog. As of Wednesday, the department had temporarily run out of 40 km/h signs — a shortage White laughingly called a "sign of the times."

"I love that people are so engaged … When you think about it, most residents want the same thing — to drive, to bike or push a stroller down their street and feel a measure of safety when they do so."

It's possible the default 50 km/h speed limit on unsigned roads is — slowly — on its way to extinction. Ontario's chief coroner recommended the province cut the default limit to 40 km/h in 2012, noting pedestrians struck by a car at 50 km/h are twice as likely to die as those hit at the lower speed.

The Ministry of Transportation started consultations early last year to determine if it should act on the suggestion, but there is "no timeline" for a decision, said spokesperson Bob Nichols. Hamilton has told the ministry it would like the option of setting its own, lower default speed limit.

Lee Baxter marvels at that change in philosophy. The Strathcona neighbourhood resident recalls appealing to city officials in 2004 to slow traffic around Victoria Park, a popular play space for kids next door to Strathcona School. "They laughed at me for even bringing it up," she said.

But when Baxter pitched the idea to Coun. Aidan Johnson last year, he brought it to council that fall. The final 40 km/h signs are expected to be installed on all residential streets around the park by the end of March.

White argues that's an example of the city's commitment to walk the talk on pedestrian safety and complete streets. He points to the city's new pedestrian mobility plan, a resurrected strategic road safety program and a North End pilot project that cut the speed limit to 30 km/h on virtually all neighbourhood streets.

On the other hand, the city was still labelled one of the most dangerous in Ontario for pedestrians as recently as 2013 and is still regularly accused of prioritizing vehicles over people, particularly on one-way arterial roads.

Ideas like two-way street conversions and "road diets" — making fast-moving roads safer by shrinking car lanes, adding cycling paths and wider sidewalks — still provoke regular debate at council.

Martin noted the city is hesitant to make major changes to lower city arterial roads until the traffic implications of a planned light rail transit line on King Street are evaluated. That study is underway.

But change is coming to faster, wider thoroughfares, too.

An experiment to enforce 40 km/h speeds on east city sections of King Street and Main during specific school hours is underway this year. And by councillor request, the speed limit has been cut to 40 km/h on the residential south end of Kenilworth Avenue, technically an arterial road.

"I hear some people say (lowering the limit) is unreasonable, but what's really unreasonable is blowing through a residential neighbourhood at 65 km/h," said ward Coun. Sam Merulla.

How do you request a traffic safety change? Traffic operations manager Martin White says a good first step is often asking your ward councillor. Otherwise, residents can email TrafficOps@hamilton.ca. Warning: it usually takes more than a simple request to change your street. Speed bumps, for example, often require a petition. In many cases, a traffic study will precede any physical changes to the roadway or speed limit.

Speed matters

? Ontario's deputy chief coroner studied pedestrian deaths and reported 67 per cent of the fatal collisions examined occurred on roadways posted at 50 km/h or higher;

? He also reported a pedestrian struck by a car travelling 50 km/h is twice as likely to die than if struck at 40 km/h;

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? He recommended cutting the default speed limit for unsigned roads to 40 km/h, and in residential neighbourhoods to 30 km/h;

? A study in 2013 suggested Hamilton was second only to Windsor in the rate of pedestrian deaths per 100,000 pedestrian and transit commuters.