An Edmonton mother is pushing for a city-wide slow down in all residential neighbourhoods; a move that is gaining the support of at least one city councillor.
Patricia Grell spent Friday morning at the park with her son, where she says drivers go by at very high speeds. It's a major concern for her, as the park is situated near a busy road. She's afraid for the safety of the children in her neighbourhood and wants city council to lower residential speed limits.
"People don't have a care," said Grell. "Because they can go 55 or 60 [km/h] and not get ticketed."
But Grell's opinion isn't just of a mother being overprotective. The International Conference on Urban Traffic Safety presented research on various speed limits, showing that 30-km/h is the "safest" speed.
"You have a very high chance of surviving an impact if you're a pedestrian at 30 km/h," says Grell. "But at 50 [km/h] you're dead, and that's what the speed limit is."
City councillor Kim Krushell agrees with Grell. She is backing up her motion to see safer city roads.
"If you're going to do it," says Krushell. "You need to make it across the board for all residential neighbourhoods. This idea of having separate school zones, the research doesn't show that it works."
CTV spoke with the Edmonton Police Service but they declined to do an interview. They said there wasn't enough research into a "blanket" speed change and that reducing the speed limit will potentially create a lot more work and be horrendous to enforce.
Krushell knows this decision might not be popular, but is necessary.
"I think 30 km/h is probably the one that makes the most sense," said Krushell. "I know there are citizens out there that will be shaking their heads and saying 'wait a minute that's too slow'."
The Transportation Public Works committee is expected to present their report to city council in October.
- With files from Dez Melenka
