The City is looking at potentially reducing the speed limit from 50 km/h to 40 km/h. At the Governance and Priorities Committee Meeting, the Director of Planning and Engineering Terry Burton presented the information to council.
“We were analyzing our current traffic bylaw, looking for some updates to it and speed is definitely a key thing we hear from the public on a fairly consistent basis,” says Burton.
Burton says other communities across Canada are experimenting with the 10 km/h reduction and looking at how the reduction in speed plays in to collisions.
Before any steps are taken, the city wants to engage residents and get their input.
“We’ll likely look to an open house where people can come in and talk about these things and share their experiences because I think we can say people who have had an accident in the community will say ‘yeah, people were travelling too fast potentially’ or someone injured in an automotive accident. Where as other people say, ‘do you know how hard it is to get through the city at five after five in the afternoon. Both are valid concerns,” says Mayor Gerald Aalbers.
The City is also waiting for the presentation on the Vision Zero program.