A Cambridge road already notorious for speeding and stunt driving has become a hot spot for late night drag racing and residents are fed up with the noise and threat of danger.
McQueen Shaver Boulevard at the south end of Cambridge has become a hot spot for speeding cars due to its remote location and hilly straightaway.
A resident whose home backs onto the road shared this video of a recent drag race with CambridgeToday and says it's become a regular occurrence.
Cambridge Ward 6 councillor Adam Cooper has heard his fair share of stories from residents about the road and how at night it turns into a raceway.
"It's a level of speeding not conventionally seen on regular municipal roads, it isn't just people going a little bit fast," said Cooper. "These are people that are going deliberately to speed to, you know, I don't know whether they're testing the cars or just doing it for the thrill, but they've created a bit of a drag strip there."
With the road being at the end of town and not necessarily in the public eye, paired with the layout of the area Cooper thinks it's a perfect storm for speeding.
Scott Griffiths, staff sergeant in charge of the Traffic Services Unit at the WRPS said police are aware of the concerns about the speeds and driving behavior on McQueen Shaver and have taken steps to enforce and educate drivers about the 60 km/h speed limit.
"WRPS patrol officers and Traffic Services members attend there regularly to monitor speeds and conduct enforcement activities," wrote Griffiths in an email to CambridgeToday. "Since the road opened, WRPS have conducted significant enforcement activities and have encountered speeds as high as 201 km/h in the 60 km/h zone."
Last month police laid 68 stunt driving related charges region wide, with McQueen Shaver Blvd contributing approximately 20 per cent of those charges.
They also launched a traffic blitz called project ERASE that resulted in 23 charges in three hours on the Cambridge road.
Cooper wants the region to continue to be proactive and get ahead of this issue before something bad happens and either a driver dies or a car ends up in a backyard.
"They want to be on the right side of this, they don't want to see some deadly accident because they didn't act," he added.
With McQueen Shaver a regionally operated road, the complications of having a two-tier government comes into play, he says, adding an extra hurdle for the City of Cambridge to jump over to enact any traffic calming measures on the road.
All city councillors can do is advocate and push for change, but ultimately the decision will be up to regional staff and council.
City council recently passed a motion asking the region to make McQueen Shaver a Community Safety Zone. This designation would allow for the use of Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras to prevent speeding.
The region says it will present a report this fall to consider the Cambridge request ND others across the region.
Michael Eccles, whose home backs onto the road near the Franklin roundabout was a delegate at the May council meeting and said he's never seen speeding and stunt driving to the frequency and degree that it happens on McQueen Shaver.
Eccles hopes the community safety zone designation results in an ASE camera, or at least gives police power to level greater fines for people who speed recklessly in the interim.
Cooper doesn't believe the cameras will be a permanent solution, but has faith in the region to use their expertise to come up with a plan to protect residents and drivers.
