Let’s try 40 km/h and see how it works
40 km/h ceiling in residential areas offers the best compromise for Edmonton drivers
Edmonton motorists are going to get lower speed limits on residential streets — that’s a certainty and a good thing.
There are many sound arguments for such a move and there’s also broad support from the public and city council.
But it’s also a near-certainty that this debate is going to be fierce. I doubt a compromise can be found that won’t enrage either drivers who want residential limits to stay at 50 km/h or cycling, pedestrian and transit activists who went them set at 30 km/ h.
The obvious compromise, of course, is a consistent 40 km/ h limit in residential areas.
A 40 km/ h limit will move Edmonton toward safer streets with rational speed limits, as opposed to speed limits that are too high, or speed limits that roller-coaster up and down as motorists head through residential, playground and school areas, going from 50 to 30 to 50 to 30 to 50 to 30.
Council is now debating these new limits, with many of the suburban councillors thinking hard about the recent civic election where they heard many bitter complaints about the new 30 km/ h playground zones that run along every park and playground in the city. Many of these fields are fenced off. Most are absent of children all winter and many spring and summer evenings as well. No doubt it’s theoretically safer to crawl alongside empty, fenced fields at 30 km/ h, but it’s also preposterous.
The new push from the city’s Vision Zero traffic safety gurus is to have all residential streets, save for a few collector roads, get this same 30 km/ h limit.
Not surprisingly, there’s limited support for such a move. The city’s best information comes from its survey of 676 Edmontonians.
It should be noted the survey was slanted to build support for 30 km/ h residential and 40 km/ h collector road limits.
How so?
Before folks were asked if they support lower limits, they were first softened up, shown a “survivability graphic” that says eight out of 10 pedestrians will die if they get hit by a car going 50 km/ h, six out of 10 will die if the car is at 40 km/ h, but just one out of 10 will die if the car is going 30 km/h.
That’s a pretty powerful hammer to use on folks, but even then, the city could only get 38 per cent of respondents to agree to the low limits, with 28 per cent saying they want to stick to 50 km/ h, and 34 per cent favouring 40 km/ h on residential roads and 50 km/ h on collectors in residential neighbourhoods.
In general, it seems, folks think local traffic should be a bit slower, but they’re not convinced the streets are unbearably hazardous. This consensus aligns with information provided to council that on average, one person per year dies in a traffic accident on all the residential and collector roads in the city’s 228 neighbourhoods, while 34 suffer major injuries.
Traffic safety officials warn that this rate will barely be cut with the move to 40 km/ h limits, but predict it will go to 21 major injuries and zero deaths if it is changed to 30 km/h.
Road safety advocates add that all the shift to 30 km/h is going to cost drivers is a wee bit of additional driving time on each trip.
I don’t fully buy the city’s predictions. First, I wonder about any major impact from a drop in speed limits given that the major cause of accidents isn’t speed, it’s distracted driving. Second, I’d like to see how a drop to 40 km/ h works before moving to 30 km/ h.
Ward 7 Coun. Tony Caterina also had doubts about the certainty with which 30 km/ h was being sold to council as the only proper and moral choice if we value human well-being.
“It’s a little bit simplistic that you say we go to 30 (km/h) because it seems to be the safest,” Caterina said. “But I guess I could argue: why don’t we go to 20 (km/h)? That way you wouldn’t have that one (fatality per year) that exists now. If you want to go to Vision Zero, which is zero (fatalities), chances are you go to zero (km/h). Then nobody moves, nobody gets hurt.”
Not everyone appreciated Caterina’s pointed comment, as a moment later Mayor Don Iveson shot back: “So what’s more important: time or lives?”
The answer to Iveson’s loaded question is that both are important, time and lives.
There’s no iron law about what the right speed limit is. It’s a balancing act. For Edmonton, the compromise of 40 km/ h on residential roads is the right answer right now, representing a major drop in current speed limits while also being the choice that the highest percentage of people are ready to accept.