A tense exchange at City Hall Wednesday, as the mayor went toe-to-toe with city officials, frustrated over their stance on raising the speed limit on Whitemud Freeway.
Mayor Stephen Mandel wasn’t mincing words in a City of Edmonton Transportation Committee meeting Wednesday, over the topic of changing the speed limit on the Whitemud – he wants to see the speed limit increased for the freeway.
“This thing should be 90 or 100 kilometres an hour, because everybody goes that fast,” Mandel said.
However, officials with the Transportation department don’t agree, they’ve recommended that the speed limit should remain the same, citing the safety of the roadway.
Transportation Services officials have outlined a number of reasons for their recommendation, such as the curves north of the Quesnell Bridge, the close spacing on interchanges such as Terwillegar Drive and limited visibility at a number of underpasses.
Officials said any increase in the speed limit will translate to a higher risk of collisions.
“I find it really frustrating that you talk about is as being such a poorly designed road because your department that designed it,” Mandel said. “I mean, this is a bit embarrassing.”
The department said officials were adhering to national safety standards.
“The team that we have is following national standards, these aren’t things that we’re just pulling out of a hat,” Transportation Services GM Barry Belcourt said.
Belcourt went on to say most drivers aren’t driving much over the speed limit, Edmonton’s Chief of Police said that’s not the case.
“We’re getting a lot of folks at a 120, 130 kilometres an hour on the Whitemud, that’s fairly regular,” Chief Rod Knecht said. “I think there’s some areas on the Whitemud and that the speed limit can probably be raised.”
“I’m not in favour of having a speed limit that nobody obeys,” Mandel said.
Transportation officials will conduct more research on the case, for the new City Council to review in the spring of 2014.
With files from Ashley Molnar
