City councillors will discuss how to lower speed limits to make Edmonton roads safer on Wednesday.

Councillors are considering two options:

  • Lower the default speed limit citywide to 40 km/h and put 50 km/h signs where the limit would not change.
  • Lower the speed limit in residential neighbourhoods to 40 km/h, where approximately 55,000 signs would have to go up.

The first option would cost nearly $7 million, and the second option is pegged at $16 million.

“I’m always grateful when the better idea is the cheaper idea,” Ward 10 Councillor Michael Walters said.

Walters believes the other councillors will support the switch to 40 km/h.

“Forty kilometres an hour as a default speed limit seemed like a workable solution in terms of making roads safer,” he said.

The report will go to committee on Wednesday and it would take a year to put in place.

With files from CTV Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson