Vancouver city councillor pushes for 30 km/h speed limit on side streets province-wide
Posted April 18, 2019 10:47 am.
Last Updated April 18, 2019 10:52 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If a Vancouver city councillor has his way, you’ll only be allowed to drive 30 kilometres per hour on all B.C. residential side streets.
Pete Fry wants to make that push as he plans to puts forward a motion in council next week.
Whenever there’s a proposal to drop speed limits, we hear from drivers upset about the inconvenience. However, Fry says studies have shown you have a much better chance of surviving getting hit by a car when it’s limited to driving at just 30 clicks per hour.
“This is an effort to really address what is an unnecessary, egregious outcome for a lot of people,” he tells NEWS 1130. “Let’s make this the default for all residential side streets.”
Fry says safety is top of mind, and cites four pedestrian deaths in Vancouver this year.
“Across the Lower Mainland we have about 1,400 cyclist injuries a year — quite a number of those result in fatalities.”
He explains a pedestrian or cyclist’s chances of serious injury or death is in the 80th percentile when they’re hit by a vehicle going 50 kilometres an hour. That number drops to below 20 per cent if a person is hit by a car going 30 kilometres.
“That’s a significant improvement in outcomes for an essentially vulnerable population,” Fry adds.
The changes would apply province-wide because they would have to be made in the Motor Vehicle Act. Fry notes this change wouldn’t necessarily affect arterial streets.
The opinions are varied on the streets of Vancouver, but some say it could be a good idea, if implemented properly.
“It depends on the streets, maybe they can lower it in certain sections, but not all of them,” one person tells NEWS 1130.
“I don’t think they should do it in all of them, because I think that’s a bit of an overkill,” another pedestrian adds.
-With files from Kareem Gouda
