Motorists entering the Town of Oxford now have a helpful reminder to watch their speed…
Drivers coming into Oxford on the 301 (from Kolbec, an 80 km/h zone) don’t always adjust for the in-town speed limit of 50 km/h. As of this week, they’ll have a visual indication of just how fast they’re going. This is something residents of Lower Main St. (aka Route 301) have wanted for some time.
While the sign was installed about a month ago, as with all things technical these days, the new equipment required training staff and requires an app to manage. Public Works Supervisor Larry Reicker says the delay was unexpected:
“We had to wait for somebody to come along and give us the training, and unfortunately I was sick the day that the training was supposed to happen.”
The device doesn’t just show you the speed at which you’re travelling, and getting it working involves a few steps:
“We have to set up the location, it has to comply with the GPS. After that we set it up for the speed limit… in this area, which is 50…”
The speed sign will display your velocity up to a maximum of 70 km/h, but not above. Reicker says that’s on purpose:
“If the vehicle exceeds 70 km/h or 70 and above, it will not record. It does record inside the machine, but it does not tell you… Because then we’ve got people out here seeing how fast they’re going… but my reports tell me what happened.”
If a vehicle is travelling above the limit set on the sign, an additional flashing white light is displayed as a warning to the driver.
The sign relays all of the information gathered back to a system from which Public Works can pull reports on how many vehicles are speeding, during what hours, etc. That data is provided to the Police Advisory Board, a town committee that works with the RCMP to monitor local matters of law enforcement.
While the sign has no camera, does not record license plates, and will not directly lead to speeding motorists being charged for violating the limit, the information it gathers will inform police strategy in dealing with violators while providing the immediate feedback to motorists that they need to slow down in a residential area.
In the first two days of operation, the sign showed approximately 40% of motorists were exceeding the posted speed limit. This data could, for example, give the police an indication as to when it would be prudent to have officers in the area to ticket speeders.
This is the first of two signs purchased by the town. The second will be placed at the entrance to town from Route 204 (Little River Road). Motorists coming down the hill from a 70 km/h zone rarely slow to the posted 50 km/h limit on the residential street.
More speed signs may be added to the mix, according to Reicker:
“(The town) bought them with the intentions of moving them around, but I’m going to recommend that maybe we buy maybe one a year or maybe two a year, for the next little while, because I believe there are five entry points into the town and that we should have them posted wherever people enter the Town of Oxford.”
Town Council set aside $10-thousand for the purchase of two signs in the 2025–26 budget. The 2026–27 budget contains no provision for more signs, although Council could decide to add more, should the town’s finances show an unexpected savings in the months ahead.
The solar-powered sign requires some management to balance the illumination level and onboard battery usage. The app can control all of its functions, while tracking battery usage over a 24-hour period.
Will the signs have an effect on speeding vehicles? Once they’ve been in operation for a time, the collected data should answer that question, and perhaps support the purchase of additional units for other parts of town.
