Skip to content

Speed limits should be reviewed

Editor: Paul Martiquet is to be commended for his recent Health Matters column (Coast Reporter, Aug. 15) on rethinking speed limits for our residential neighbourhoods.

 

Editor:

Paul Martiquet is to be commended for his recent Health Matters column (Coast Reporter, Aug. 15) on rethinking speed limits for our residential neighbourhoods.

He’s certainly not alone in suggesting that it’s time the BC Motor Vehicle Act, which insists on a 50 km/h speed limit for all municipal thoroughfares, was updated to be more in line with what’s happening in the rest of the developed world.

For instance, the European Union has directed its members to consider lower speed limits on local streets, and countries like Sweden, France, Netherlands and even Italy have been implementing 30 km/h speed limits for years. Britain has embraced the “20’s Plenty” program (that’s 20 mph) and now more than 13 million residents in the suburbs of cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and London enjoy the benefits of lower traffic speeds in their neighbourhoods.

The list of recognized safety and social benefits associated with lower vehicle speeds on residential streets is long, as Martiquet points out, but I am still waiting to read one well-reasoned argument why 50 km/h is better than 30. It certainly doesn’t get you to where you’re going that much sooner. On short journeys of a kilometre or two through neighbourhoods, any time saved by trying to reach 50 is measured in seconds, not minutes.

So I think it’s safe to say that we will be hearing a lot more about 30 km/h speed limits for local streets as British Columbia tries to catch up with what the rest of the world is doing — making neighbourhoods primarily places for people, not just motor vehicles.