Speed limits in Westlock will soon be lowered after town council successfully passed second and third readings of the new traffic bylaw July 13.
Speed limits in Westlock will soon be lowered after town council successfully passed second and third readings of the new traffic bylaw July 13.
Speed limits will be dropped from 50 km/h to 40 km/h and most school zones will be turned into playground zones, meaning 30 km/h speed limits are in effect seven days a week.
The new limits will not go into effect until new signage can be ordered and installed and the town first runs a public awareness campaign.
'It's not enforceable until signs are in place," said CAO Dean Krause. 'It's important to us to do a public awareness program before signs go up so everyone has a chance to get used to it."
Krause said he expects signage to be ready in about one month while adding the awareness campaign would mostly consist of advertising.
'I think our target date would be to have everything in place before school starts because the school zones are changed also," he said.
The bylaw has been drafted to give the provision to create school zones, without having any particular school zones within the bylaw, Krause said.
'Administration drafted it that way to provide the flexibility to review street by street," he said.
'There are definitely some streets that would be better off being a school zone, but a designated playground zone - particularly the curved street by the elementary school. The street in front of the (Pioneer) museum, for example, that might be better as a school zones instead of a playground zone.
'It's a high school, it's all fenced there, and there are designated crosswalks."
Coun. Curtis Snell indicated some concern regarding potential for confusion if there are playground zones in some places but not others.
'I'm a little bit concerned," Snell said. 'We don't want to start confusing things, maybe that's not going to happen, I guess."
'We're aware with what council is concerned with," Krause responded.
'We are just trying to take an approach of where it makes sense, versus having the public come back to us in a year saying,
‘Why is this 30 km/h on Saturday and Sunday when there's no activity there?'"
Council passed first reading of the bylaw at its May 11 meeting and held a public open house prior to is June 22 meeting. The open house, attended by Alberta Transportation regional safety consultant David Mckenzie, was the key to the bylaw getting passed.
'I think his impact was very high," said Coun. David Truckey after the consultation. 'It was an even split, very passionate comments on both sides, but once Mr. Mckenzie spoke I think he was the turning point for what council felt was going to be the best for the community."
