Default speed limit drops to 40 km/h on Aug. 6
Edmonton's new default speed limit in residential and downtown areas will take effect in one month.
Starting Aug. 6, the speed limit in those areas will drop from 50 km/h to 40 km/h.
According to the director of the city's Safe Mobility program, people who are struck by a vehicle at the lower speed are much more likely to survive the crash.
"So what we're doing is we're really increasing safety for people who are living in their neighbourhoods," Jessica Lamarre told media on Friday, speaking on a sidewalk in King Edward Park community, whose residents will be some of many across the city affected by the change.
"We're using streets for more than just vehicle travel. We're using them to gather as a community, to go to the playground, to walk to school, and so we want to make those streets more safer and really to create a space that's more livable for everyone."
"The number one neighbourhood concern on any citizen survey we've given, all the way back to the early 90s before I started… has been traffic," Insp. Keith Johnson, who leads Edmonton Police Service's traffic services branch, added. "It's speed, it's distracted driving. It's going through stop signs."
GRACE PERIOD
The city is launching a public awareness campaign to tell people about the change, and drivers will have a grace period from Aug. 6 to Sept. 1 to get used to it.
During those weeks leading up to the new school year, people caught violating the rule will receive a warning rather than ticket, unless they're caught violating traffic laws excessively.
Lamarre said the city's research suggests the large majority of Edmontonians respect speed limits, and so she doesn't expect "huge jumps" in enforcement.
Signs will also be posted at city limits to inform drivers coming into the city.
Both Lamarre and the EPS have touted the change as one supportive of the city's Vision Zero goal by 2032.
According to Johnson, EPS' major collisions unit is investigating 10 fatal crashes in 2021. It counted 12 I 2020.
Lowering the default speed limit cost the city $1 million and was funded by the Traffic Safety Automated Enforcement Reserve, not tax levy.
A map of the changes and more information is available online.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.