Cold Lake cracking down on speeding

Mayor Craig Copeland estimates 5000 speeding and noise complaints are sent to the City within a given year.

The City is going to look into different solutions to help put the brakes on speeding issues in its northern residential areas.

Despite a notable pothole that’s managed to persist over the years, the road in front of Cold Lake Hospital has been an especially notable section for speeding, with some vehicles being recorded at speeds of 80 kilometres in the 50 kilometre stretch.

Mayor Craig Copeland said on The Morning After last week that the City is going to find out how common the issue is.

“We’ve set up a radar that’s going to record the speeds of cars passing the hospital, and from that data it’s going to calculate a percentage of cars that are speeding as well as recording the speed those cars are traveling at,” said Copeland.

“Especially with the road in front of the hospital, and between the parking it has and the apartments across the street, you’ll get cars parked along the side of the road, and that creates quite a hazard.”

The City has also looked into bringing on dedicated enforcement to address the issue, as well considering lowering the median speed limit from 50 kilometres to 40.

Cold Lake is currently without photo radar and it’s fallen to RCMP officers to catch speeding.

Reports of motorists traveling at similar speeds have also come from residents of Lakeshore Drive, coupled with noise complaints stemming from street bike riders driving down the road late at night.

“Speeding and noise are both something every municipality has to deal with–on average we get 5000 complaints a year, so it’s something we’re very conscious of and are looking to find solutions on,” said Copeland.

“As we get more concise data, like more complaints from a specific area of town, it helps us zone in on what we need to prioritize.”

The road is notable for it’s narrowness and winding construction, and in recent years has started to fall under scrutiny for its rough shape.

Copeland said that making repairs to Lakeshore Drive was a major capital project that the city would have to soon address.