Edmonton city council approved 30 km/h speed limits near playgrounds and schools on Tuesday, and next year it will set its sights on possible speed-limit reductions in all city neighbourhoods.
The Ottewell, King Edward Park and Woodcroft neighbourhoods have already lowered their speed limits to 40km/h after a city review.
All three areas were included in a speed-reduction pilot project in 2010. So too were Twin Brooks, Westridge-Wolf Willow and Beverly Heights, however those neighbourhoods reverted back to 50 km/h.
A new draft city charter signed by the province last month allows the city to make changes to the default speed limits on residential streets.
Ron Franks lives in the Ottewell neighbourhood where the speed limit is 40 km/h. He said he is happy with the change and wouldn’t mind seeing it lowered further.
“To be honest with you, in that area with the cars parking on the street, I think it should be 30[km/h],” said Franks. “If kids are playing in between the cars and they step out, 40[km/h] is too fast.”
A handful of residents CBC News spoke with on Wednesday were all in support of 40 km/h as a new default speed limit.
Ward 12 Coun. Mohinder Banga said he is in favour of a citywide reduction to residential speed limits as a way of “making sure residents, especially younger population, are safer from any possible injuries or fatalities.”
Ward 11 Coun. Mike Nickel is treading carefully when it comes to supporting a blanket speed-limit decrease for Edmonton residential neighbourhoods. (Travis McEwan/CBC)
Ward 11 Coun. Mike Nickel said he’d prefer the city made decisions to change speed limits in neighbourhoods on a case-by-case basis instead of setting a blanket 40 km/h limit across all residential streets.
“Ritchie, in my ward, is not the same as Ekota,” said Nickel. “The roads are different. The configurations are different.”
Early next year, council will see a staff report studying changes to the neighbourhood speed limit.