Regina city council kicks decision on lowering speed limit in Cathedral neighbourhood down the road

A decision on lowering the speed limit in the Cathedral neighbourhood to 30 kilometres per hour, 24 hours a day will not come until May. 

Regina city council spent more than four hours on Wednesday debating the larger subject of a "Vision Zero" framework, which has the goal of reducing major injuries or deaths by lowering the number of crashes.

While that framework was unanimously endorsed by councillors, they were unable to reach a consensus on the creation of a community safety zone in the Cathedral neighbourhood.

Councillors were sharply divided on whether to follow the advice of city staff, who repeatedly told council they should vote to approve or reject the creation of a safety zone, rather than watering down the proposal. 

"I would not recommend council make changes to traffic engineering on the floor of council," said Kurtis Doney, the deputy city manager of city operations. 

Some city councillors floated a variety of solutions they thought would be a compromise between the data-driven report assembled over the course of years and anecdotal complaints from concerned residents. 

One proposal would modify the speed limit in the safety zone to 40 kilometres per hour. Another was an exemption to the safety zone on certain streets.

None of the proposals received the majority support from city council required to pass.

"I'm not a traffic engineer," said Ward 4 Coun. Lori Bresciani. 

Council has previously been told that even if further public consultation on the subject was ordered, the recommendations from city staff would remain the same. 

The decision to table the debate on the proposed community safety zone comes a year and a day after a vehicle hit and killed a 16-year-old boy at the intersection of 13th Avenue and Garnet Street.

His death was one of two fatal collisions involving pedestrians on 13th Avenue in 2023. 

Those deaths helped inform the recommendation to create the proposed community safety zone in Cathedral, staff told city councillors.

The staff report presented to council shows that from 2015 to 2019, there were a total of 26,254 collisions in Regina, resulting in 3,918 injuries. Of those, 134 were major injuries and 19 were fatalities.

The Vision Zero framework endorsed by council on Wednesday focuses on protecting vulnerable road users, targeting aggressive driving, improving intersection safety, reducing impaired driving and lowering incidents of distracted driving.

A high-level estimate from the city indicates the Vision Zero project will cost $23.5 million from 2024 to 2028.

Of that funding estimate, $7.5 million is expected to be in new budget requests.