Motorists may have to drive a bit slower in a couple of Athabasca neighbourhoods soon.
During last Tuesday’s town council meeting, councillors voted to reduce the speed limits in Hees Estates and the high school hill neighbourhood if unless more than 50 per cent of the residents want itobject. It’ll be a trial run for two years.
“I want to give them that option, if the residents want to do this as a trial basis only,” said Mayor Roger Morrill. “That's what I’m suggesting we do, we just give them that option.”
According to Morrill, quite a few municipalities are lowering their speed limits and, unless Athabasca wants to be left behind, they should follow suit.
“I'm finding more and more communities are looking at a default of setting it at 40 km/h. Many of the provinces are looking at that,” he said. “So, it's time that we stepped up and showed that we are at the forefront of this.”
There was quite a lot of debate around the subject. However, the biggest problem a few of the councillors had was enforcement.
“If we're just going to say, 'Let's put a sign up and let's make it pretty and everyone's going to follow it,' we know we're lying to ourselves at this point,” said councillor Shelly Gurba. “If we're not willing to enforce it, then I don't think I can back this.”
Councillor Nichole Adams questioned why they were bothering to change the speed limits if there isn’t currently any speed enforcement.
“We're not enforcing the rules we have, so we're going to change the rules?” she said. “People are already speeding. They need to stop speeding. Changing the rules isn't going to make people follow the rules.”
According to the town’s chief administrative officer (CAO) Josh Pyrcz, however, the town is currently in discussion with the RCMP to work on speed enforcement. It’s been stalled, though, due to a change in the local detachment’s leadership.
“Given the transition right now, we're sort of in a holding pattern,” he said. “But it's our full intent that once we have our discussions with our interim and then permanent sergeant at the detachment, that the enforcement will be there and it will be consistent.”
There was also a suggestion from councillor Joanne Peckham that Cornwall be included as one of the trial areas. Morrill, though, responded with his reasoning for choosing the other two neighbourhoods.
“I'm suggesting these two sites (because) they simply require two signs. That would be a low cost to us for each of those, if they chose to get it.”
That said, if any other neighbourhoods wanted to participate, Morrill stated they could let the town know.
Councillor Tanu Tyszka-Evans also wanted to increase the scope of the speed reduction. Instead of limiting the speed reduction to two neighbourhoods, he suggested including the entire town. That way, he said, it wouldn’t be annoying for drivers.
“You've all driven down the Yellowhead or the Whitemud. How annoying is it when you hit a 70 zone, and then five blocks later it's up to 80, and then it's back down to 70?” he said. “(If) we start only changing select neighbourhoods to 40, it's going to cause confusion.”
Morrill, though, made the motion to include the two neighbourhoods in a potential speed reduction and, although Tyszka-Evans, Gurba and Adams voted against it, the motion passed.
Residents in the area will receive letters detailing the speed reduction shortly and are asked to tell the town their opinion on the subject. Those who don’t respond are assumed to approve of the plan.
