Sicamous council is contemplating slowing things down in the district following further review of speed limits in town.
At the Dec. 11 Committee of the Whole, council discussed local speed limits as suggested at the Nov. 27 meeting, after staff brought additional information for consideration.
Operations manager Darrell Symbaluk referenced Vision Zero, an international organization that recommends municipalities set speed limits to 30 km/h in areas where pedestrians and cyclists mix with vehicles. In a quick search, he found other communities that have dropped their speed limits to 30, including Victoria, Vancouver, Banff, Cochrane, Airdrie and Toronto, while others have gone to 40 km/h.
Symbaluk also consulted with the local RCMP, which didn't really indicate there's an issue with speed.
"The RCMP is looking at usually one metric, how many accidents. There weren't a lot of accidents, and so they're not seeing a real problem," he said. "But that's not the whole picture."
Other considerations for lowering speed in Sicamous, Symbaluk added, include an increased number of cyclists on the roads, the large senior population, active transportation initiatives and the seasonal influx of traffic.
While not opposed to the idea, Mayor Collleen Anderson pointed out a past speed change wasn't necessarily well accepted and they should be mindful of that.
“When we changed the speed limit on Old Town Road from 50 to 40, that was a big item for a lot of folks," she pointed out. "So I would suggest that this be... some community input as opposed to just changing the speed limit.”
Coun. Siobhan Rich agreed it should go to the community for input, but was personally onboard with slowing things down, particularly in residential areas and where there's a lot of pedestrian traffic.
“I think this is a great initiative, I think it should be 30. There’s no stop signs in the tree streets and it is a constant complaint that I get…," she said. "There’s way too many people going way too fast and we just, we’re pretty condensed and so 30 isn’t that hard to do.”
Though not opposed to reviewing speed limits, Coun. Ian Baillie said they should get more information before making a knee-jerk decision. He added they should "be led by the data," get community input and look into the cost implications of new signage, messaging the change and enforcement.
“There needs to be something a little more thought out. I would certainly like to see what the cost of that is, I’d like to see what the community feedback is," he said. "I feel 30 is way too low... I wouldn’t want to set a target or a speed limit where then, at the end of the day, you have mass non-compliance.”
Council unanimously agreed the matter needs to have public consultation, but Coun. Malcolm Makayev also suggested seeking a professional opinion before making any decisions, pointing out they're "talking about stuff we're really not experts on."
"If we're going to change something, I think we should hire a traffic engineer to have a look at our community and then see what recommendations they come up with."
After staff pointed out there is currently an active transportation study being done, council passed a motion to have a review of district speed limits be included in that process.
