Council to take closer look at reducing speed limits
Saskatoon is headed down a road with the potential for lower speed limits on residential streets.
City council voted narrowly on Monday night to move forward with developing a controversial plan to change speed limits. Coun. Bev Dubois stressed there is no specific speed limit mandated.
The 6-5 vote endorsed having the administration “develop a detailed framework for revising posted speed limits on neighbourhood streets.”
Council also approved examining school zones and the possibility of playground zones, and addressing speeding and safety in areas where a lot of seniors reside.
“I’m very eager to see us pursue the opportunity for playground zones,” Coun. Hilary Gough said Monday night.
Council and the public are not expected to see a report on the matter for about a year.
The City of Saskatoon’s acting general manager of transportation and utilities, Angela Gardiner, said the lower speed limits would not apply to major arterial roads. Not every street with a residence on it meets the city’s criteria to be classified as a residential street, she noted.
Gardiner cited Spadina Crescent, where some City Park residents have raised concerns about speeding, as a road that is not classified as residential even though it is lined with houses.
Coun. Troy Davies, who voted against the idea, said the city does not have the money or the staff to pursue the concept. The framework for revising speed limits is expected to cost $50,000 and be paid for through an existing project budget.
“I don’t see a budget coming forward to pay for this,” Davies said, noting there’s a six-year backlog of traffic calming measures in his ward awaiting completion.
“These are great ideas as well, but when are we going to get some work done?” Davies said.
Coun. Darren Hill said he’s happy to hear lower speed zones beside high schools will be addressed since he hears from residents wondering about them.
Most Canadian cities do not have lower speed zones next to high schools.
The initiative on speed limits
stems from a report on speeding in residential neighbourhoods. Speeding proved to be the common complaint heard at the city’s neighbourhood traffic reviews.
In many instances, monitoring speeds showed motorists were
not exceeding Saskatoon’s default speed limit for residential streets of 50 kilometres per hour. That led the administration to conclude the posted speed limit may be too fast for residents’ expectations.
A city report cited safety as the reason to consider lower speed limits. Between 2007 and 2016, 69 people were killed and 12,666 people were injured in vehicle collisions in Saskatoon, the report said.
Lowering the speed limit has been shown to reduce deaths and injuries. Saskatoon police issued more than 6,300 speeding tickets in the first seven months of this year, the report adds.
Dropping the speed limit from 50 km/h to 30 km/h on residential streets would add less than a minute to the average Saskatoon commute, according to the report.
The city lowered the speed limit in Montgomery Place to 40 km/h two years ago because the neighbourhood lacks sidewalks. A study last year showed the measure has produced mixed results, with speeds in some locations increasing marginally.