Vancouver city council has unanimously approved a plan to reduce the speed limit on all minor streets to 30 km/h.
Vancouver’s blanket speed limit is currently the provincial default of 50 km/h, with exceptions for school and park zones and a stretch of East Hastings near Main Street.
The new, lower speed limit would apply to all “local streets that do not have a painted centre line and are in a residential area.”
According to the city, dropping limits from 50 to 30 km/h can cut pedestrian fatality rates in the case of a collision from 80 per cent to just 15 per cent.
“We are committed to seeing safer streets and a reduction in both road-related fatalities and serious injuries,” said Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim.
“We look forward to implementing evidence-based practices and finding new, innovative ways to keep pedestrians and active transportation users safe.”
The city will phase in the new speed limit, beginning with 25 select neighbourhoods, the majority of which already have some kind of traffic calming in place.
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Eight of them don’t, and according to the city have speeding concerns.
Additional neighbourhoods will be phased in in future capital plans.
Along with the slower speed limit, council was also slated also discuss adopting a “vision zero” strategy aimed on Wednesday at rethinking its road safety programs.
“There are such negative effects for society of so many crashes, you know our insurance premiums are too high, our health care costs that we pay taxes for are too high,” OneCity Coun. Lucy Maloney told Global News.
“And it’s avoidable because we know what works to avoid deaths and injuries; there have been a number of studies around the world.”
Maloney said City of Vancouver research also concluded that half of pedestrian injuries and deaths involve seniors, who make up just one-fifth of the city’s population.
She said she’s hopeful changes can be made to improve safety for the city’s elders at intersections.
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