Hundreds of Kitchener residents, including families and small children, live on the three-block stretch of Benton Street between King and Courtland. If they want to walk along the street they are faced with four lanes of speeding traffic and zero buffer between the sidewalk and the cars and buses on the road. There is no need for this: Benton Street was widened in the '70s for a plan to promote more driving into downtown Kitchener; a plan which was abandoned after Benton's widening. Sign this petition to show your support for a "road diet" that shrinks Benton street, calms the traffic, and provides bike lanes and buffers for pedestrians and young children to travel safely along the road next to their homes. Let's make our neighborhood beautiful and safe! 

We're petitioning the region to repaint the road and follow up with their 2010 commitment to shrink Benton Street, replacing two of the four lanes with parking and buffered bike lanes. Here's a diagram of what the proposed road could look like. We understand the region could move quickly with this because in 2015 the province changed the municipal class environmental assessment process, pre-approving the conversion of general purpose travel lanes to bike lanes when using paint. Let's do it!