City Council to Vote on Lower Speed Limits in Edmonton Communities

In March 2009 Edmonton City Council sponsored an International Conference on Urban Traffic Safety. Presentations by each of the speakers can be found at the website of the Office of Traffic Safety. A major recommendation that came out of this conference was that the City needs to look at the safety of their current posted speed limit within residential neighbourhoods. A pedestrian hit by a vehicle traveling 50 km/hr -- the current posted speed limit within Edmonton's communities--has an extremely high chance of dying. A pedestrian hit at 30 km/hr has a very good chance of surviving. As the speed limit increases, so does the pedestrian's chances of dying from the impact.

Residents have intuitively known this and kept their children away from the high speed traffic that has flourished in many of our communities in recent years. Life in our neighbourhoods is receding away from the streets -- children are kept in back yards and at computers instead of riding their bikes and congregating at community playgrounds. The noise from traffic makes it difficult for neighbours to chat across hedges to one another. Fewer people outside both young and old means fewer eyes on the street keeping crime in check. With few people out on the sidewalk or streets, drivers go faster through our communities creating an unsafe environment for all. Our neighbourhoods' social life is impacted as well as the health of our children who are kept safe inside but at computers instead of being active in nearby playgrounds.

Currently in Woodcroft Community where I live a recent Transportation Dept. traffic survey determined that there are 4,200 vehicles/day passing by our Community League playground. Our playground is not located on an arterial road but at the corner of 2 collector roads in the heart of our community. A traffic survey done in 2006 found that 300 vehicles/day were going 60+ km/hr by this same playground. The City's Transportation Dept. is doing nothing about this situation. EPS has monitored our situation and found that we do not have enough vehicles going 65 km/hr -- 15 km/hr above the speed limit -- to warrant sending out personnel to give out tickets. We are told by the police that they have to give this much lee way because unless they ticket drivers 15 km/hr over the limit, the ticket will not stand up in court.

In October 2009 City Council will be discussing the possibility of lowering speed limits within Edmonton neighbourhoods. The questions they will raise are:

1. if we lower the speed limit within communities, what should it be?
2. if we lower the speed limit should it only apply to school and playground zones?
3. if we lower the speed limit, will EPS have enough personnel to enforce the new lower limit?

Answer to #1: From the above graph which was presented at the Urban Traffic Safety Conference, you can see that the safest vehicle speed for a pedestrian environment is 30 km/hr. The police will always give some lee way to drivers so if the speed limit is posted at 30 km/hr they will be ticketed when they reach 40 km/hr or 45 km/hr. This is at least better than 60 km/hr or 65 km/hr. If the speed limit is reduced only to 40 km/hr then we are almost back where we started -- 50 km/hr or 55 km/hr where the chances of a pedestrian dying are very high. So City Council, if they are willing to look at the evidence given at the conference they sponsored and attended, would do our citizens well, to vote for a 30 km/hr speed limit within residential neighbourhoods.

Answer to #2: Fred Wegman, Managing Director of the Institute for Road Safety Research, Netherlands stated at the International Conference that in order to increase speed limit compliance speed limits need to be uniform on residential roads, on arterials and on highways. He suggested that each type of road should have a uniform speed limit so that drivers know simply by the type of road they are on, what the speed limit is. You may have noticed that speed limits are rarely uniform in Edmonton except in neighbourhoods. With school and playground zones abolished in the early 70's by City Council, residential neighbourhoods are the only places in Edmonton that have the uniform speed limit of 50 km/hr -- a speed limit that has created a lot of fear for parents of young children. To encourage drivers to comply to the recommended safe speed limit of 30 km/hr it must be consistent throughout our communities.
And further, my children do not just ride their bikes near their school or near the playground. They are riding their bikes from our house to these areas. Our whole community is a sensitive area where I and many parents like me, want to know that our kids will be safe crossing the street in front of our homes which takes them to the playground on the other side of the community.

Answer to #3: Lower speed limits can be enforced using radar vans. The city has already purchased 4 radar vans for exclusive use by communities. It is conceivable that in the near future, each community within Edmonton could purchase their own radar van which could be moved from street to street to enforce the speed limit. Each radar van costs $50,000 -- an amount well within the reach of a community league's budget.

This October City Council will be debating these questions and I ask all of you to please email your Councilors and let them know that you want their vote to be based upon the traffic safety facts they learned at the International Conference on Urban Safety that they sponsored. Speed limits need to be lowered to 30 km/hr and lowered uniformly within our residential neighbourhoods for the sake of our physical safety as pedestrians and most of all for the physical health and safety of our children.