Recently Gorski Consulting was approached by a local group of residents with a request for a traffic safety study for their area. Their concern was with respect to the intersection of Wortley Road and Mountsfield Drive and specifically a newly-installed pedestrian crossing that may not be providing the safety for the children attending the nearby Mountsfield Public School. Safety concerns have been expressed by residents in other neighbourhoods in London and this provides an opportunity to demonstrate what can be done to conduct a proper, objective, safety study. As such Gorski Consulting agreed to become involved.
The Wortley-Mountsfield Traffic Study was previously introduced in a Gorski Consulting website article (“Wortley at Mountsfield Traffic Study – Introduction”) posted on this Gorski Consulting site on July 6, 2026. There we described the six camera locations and the two 50-metre segments along Wortley Road in which speed documentations were accomplished. The focus of the study was with respect to a painted pedestrian crossing that was installed across Wortley just north of the intersection with Mountsfield Drive.
The present article will describe the findings from the observations of motor vehicle traffic volume and speeds from the June 15, 2026 video session which took place approximately between 1503 and 1617 hours. A future article will then describe the findings of the pedestrian and cyclist observations from that same session. A second video session was also conducted on the morning of June 22, 2026 and discussion of those results will be posted in a future article.
Motor Vehicle Traffic Volume & Speeds From June 15, 2026 Video Session
A total 546 motor vehicles were documented travelling north and south along Wortley Road between 1503 and 1617 hours in the vicinity of the T-intersection with Mountsfield Drive. 317 of those observations were of southbound vehicles whereas 229 were northbound.
Although there are slight variations at various schools in London, typically, grade school children are released from school at approximately 1520 to 1525 hrs. Mountsfield Public School is located about 150 metres east of the intersection of Wortley and Mountsfield. So it would not be surprising that school children would begin to arrive at the intersection shortly after this time. This is confirmed in our video observations. Of the total 156 pedestrians/cyclists that were observed throughout the full video session, 106 of those reached the pedestrian crosswalk in the vicinity of 1527 and 1535 hours, or within a time span of only 8 minutes.
The video session took place over a time of 74 minutes and therefore, an observation of 546 motor vehicles would lead to an average of 7.38 vehicles per minute. An examination of the motor vehicle traffic showed that 48 southbound and 36 northbound motor vehicles passed by the pedestrian crossing in that 8 minute time span, or an average of 10.5 vehicles per minute. Therefore, the results show that, at the time that children arrived at the pedestrian crossing at a high volume, motor vehicle observations also increased to a higher volume.
The speed of motor vehicles also presents a useful observation. Over the full video session the average speed of vehicles was documented along two segments of Wortley Road: 1.) between 50 metres north up the pedestrian crossing; 2.) at 50 metres south up to the pedestrian crossing. The video camera at the pedestrian crossing stopped recording at 1600 hours, so speeds up to that time could be obtained over the two segments but for the remaining time of about 17 minutes speeds could only be obtained over the full, 100-metre distance. The posted speed limit for Wortley Road in this vicinity was 40 km/h. At the two road segments the following average speeds were observed:
Southbound Vehicles: 50m N to pedestrian crossing = 40.03 km/h, pedestrian crossing to 50m S = 39.14 km/h.
Southbound Vehicles (1600 to 1617 hours): 50m N to 50m S = 41.8 km/h.
Northbound vehicles: 50m N to pedestrian crossing = 39.74 km/h, pedestrian crossing to 50m S = 38.73 km/h.
Northbound Vehicles (1600 to 1617 hours): 44.49 km/h.
In contrast to the above data, we can examine the speed of vehicles during the 8 minutes between 1527 and 1535 hours and this shown below:
Southbound Vehicles: 50m N to pedestrian crossing = 27.22 km/h, pedestrian crossing to 50m S = 31.08 km/h.
Northbound Vehicles: 50m N to pedestrian crossing = 33.64 km/h, pedestrian crossing to 50m S = 24.75 km/h.
The above data show that, during the 8 minutes between 1527 and 1535 hours, the average speed of all motor vehicles was substantially lower than the speed throughout the full 74 minutes of the video session. Given that there were substantially more pedestrians (children) in the vicinity, and given that there were also more motor vehicles passing through the area it would be reasonable to conclude that it was the congestion caused by all these observations that caused this reduction in vehicle speeds. And this is verified when reviewing the video and observing the incidents where motor vehicles had to slow down, or come to a stop, for pedestrians crossing at the pedestrian crossing.
Motor vehicle speeds were also affected by the number of turning vehicles. Most of this turning was in and out of Mountsfield Drive. Throughout the full 74 minutes of the video session there were 72 southbound vehicles and 59 northbound vehicles that performed some type of turning motion. Thus of the 546 vehicles 131 made a turning motion, or 24%.
In contrast, during the 8 minutes between 1527 and 1535 hours, 84 vehicles passed through the site. There were 48 northbound vehicles and 24 of those made a turning motion. There were 36 southbound vehicles and 17 of those made a turning motion. Or more generally, of the 84 vehicles that passed through the site in those 8 minutes, 41 of them made a turning motion, or 48.8% of that total.
Summary of Results
We can now summarize these findings. An 8 minute segment of the 74 minute video session, between 1527 and 1535 hours, experienced a substantial difference in the character of the traffic scenario. At the beginning of the 8 minutes children began arriving, approaching westbound on Mountsfield, and then they disbursed, primarily travelling northbound on the east sidewalk of Wortley Road. During this time more motor vehicles began travelling through the site and more vehicles performed turning motions. The average speed of motor vehicles dropped substantially during this period of congestion. These results are not surprising. Similar results would be expected in the vicinity of any school in London, Ontario.
An important question is whether the results from this study suggest that the Wortley-Mountsfield site contains conditions that are less safe than other sites in the City of London. The primary concern of residents was whether the newly installed pedestrian crossing was providing a benefit toward the safety of children and all else who might use it. The exploration of this issue will continue in another Gorski Consulting website article that will deal with pedestrian, cyclist and other micro-mobility motions observed during the June 15, 2026 video session.
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