Reducing speed limits: discussion on making roads safer

Miriam Ostermann
Times Associate Editor

 

Town council entertained the idea of paving the road to allow for speeds lower than 50 km an hour to exist in Strathmore’s residential areas in the future, with a unanimous vote to review the traffic bylaw and develop a policy based on the Canadian Guidelines for establishing posted speed limits last week.
The decision followed a proposal by the traffic advisory committee to reduce municipal speed limits from 50 km an hour to 40 km an hour on residential roads dependent on specific residential components such as traffic volume, parked vehicles, and road width.
“A speed limit is exactly that, it’s a limit not a target, but unfortunately there are some people on the road that see it as a target,” said Martin Wiseman, member of the Traffic Advisory Board. “I think this is an awesome opportunity for Strathmore to be proactive before someone gets killed down Centre Street for example. By reducing the speed limit it’s got to have a positive impact on road safety. It’s got to have a positive impact on insuring the safety of pedestrians; children.”
Understanding possible defiance by drivers when lowering the speed limit by too high of a reduction and acknowledging the possibility of observing a greater success rate when communicating the reasoning behind the change in speed limits, the board proposed surveying residents living on those roads considered and thus providing a sense of engagement.
All five council members in attendance, with the absence of Mayor Michael Ell and Councillor Denise Peterson, spoke in favour of the reduction to 40 km an hour on certain residential roads, specifically singling out Centre Street.
“Centre Street is one of the busiest if not the most dangerous street in this town and I refuse to use it myself,” said Councillor Rocky Blokland. “To me that’s just an accident waiting to happen at some point. I really believe we’re not going down far enough with this, it should go down to 30. I’ve driven through lots of town and there are speed limits all over the place and you just have to pay attention and watch the signs and follow the speed limits.”
Councillor Steve Grajczyk was also recognized that saving lives takes priority but was concerned with the cost of replacing and installing new speed signs. Council also discussed the possibility of introducing a blanket 40-km-an-hour zone for all residential areas, but research proved the approach had not always been successful in areas across the province.
Although no changes were made to speed zones in Strathmore’s residential areas, council voted to review the traffic bylaw to allow for speeds lower than 50 km an hour in those areas, and develop a policy allowing for analysis for roads to be identified for a reduction speed of 40 km per hour.
“As a community we’re doing not bad in this area in regards to collisions,” said Councillor Bob Sobol. “There’s on average for the last five years, there’s 2.5 pedestrian collisions a year, which is 2.5 too many. But I think we have to credit the motorists who do pay attention to the speed limits and the vast majority of people do that, but unfortunately not everyone does. I think the committee’s main goal is to slow things down in high traffic areas and make it just a little bit more safe.”