Saskatoon city council committee votes against reducing speed limits on residential streets

A Saskatoon city council committee has put the brakes on reducing speed limits to 40 km/h in residential areas.

Administration was recommending that the transportation committee approve in principle a 40 km/h speed limit for residential neighbourhoods.

The recommendation was defeated 4-2 by councillors on the city's standing policy committee on transportation.

Couns. Zach Jeffries, Randy Donauer, Bev Dubois and David Kirton voted against the recommendation. Mayor Charlie Clark and Coun. Hilary Gough voted for it.

Kirton put forward a recommendation that administration report back on the "costs, grant options and feasibility of a Speed Watch program, with a plan to adopt such a program or carry out a limited pilot project to help assess its worth."

Under the program, volunteers would monitor problem areas with portable radar equipment and a camera.

"Think of Neighborhood Watch, but with a radar gun," Kirton said. 

"They record the speed and the licence plate, then pass the information on to police, who then send a letter to the registered owner of that vehicle."

Police could then visit repeat speeders, Kirton said.

Kirton said those volunteers would also be able to help identify where more speeding enforcement is needed.

"If they were able to target better through the use of volunteers on speed watch, I could see a big benefit from that," he said.

Coun. Gough said she supported the recommendation to reduce speed limits because it was a question of people feeling safe on their own streets.

"I think we should take seriously the opportunities that we have to reduce the potential for these types of fatalities and collisions," she said.

"Our transportation team hears every day when people call them up and say people are speeding on our street. What they're actually saying is, 'I don't feel safe.'"

Gough said people feeling unsafe because of speed does have an impact.

"If the implication of helping a lot of people feel more safe in our community and even more people who can't speak for themselves, who are children, to have more opportunities to be present as the public face of our city, then I think that's worth the 20 seconds, the extra 20 seconds that it will take the average car commuter to get out of their neighborhood."

Two surveys

The city conducted two different surveys, one where residents could vote online and another conducted by randomly selecting phone numbers of residents.

The online poll found more than 60 per cent opposed reducing the speed.

The phone survey had 52 per cent of respondents in favour of reducing the speed limit.

Kirton said it is important to note the online survey is less scientific than the phone survey.

"Everybody I've ever talked to about online polls have always been extremely sceptical about those polls, simply because of how easy they can be to stack," Kirton said. "And so with respect, I would say it would suggest that we should be as much as possible only talking about good, statistically solid polls such as the telephone call."