City to keep speed limits at 50 km/h after public survey

Speed limits on residential Cold Lake streets will stay status quo at 50 km/h after hundreds of residents opposed the idea.

Since the issue was raised to look at potential changes to the perceived speeding issues in December, city council got the ball rolling on a wide survey of residents to collect opinions.

With an overwhelming number of responses, over 900, city council will not go down the road of lowering speed limits, but instead look at increasing enforcement of the existing limits.

“So the overwhelming support in the community was not to change the speed limit, and maybe look more at the enforcement. The idea was to lower inside your residential streets where most of everybody lives, go from 50 to 40. But council decided to keep it at 50,” Mayor Craig Copeland told Lakeland Connect. 

“During budget time, we’ll probably look at what can we do in terms of enforcement or putting in speed bumps or more stop signs just to slow the traffic. There is definitely some areas in Cold Lake that are concern, and we get that there’s long stretches where people can drive quite fast.” 

A look at the class of roads in the city and the current speed limits in these areas. The idea of lowering the speed to 40 km/h was discussed for “local” roads. Images: City of Cold Lake.

A July survey broke down the issue for council to see where resident’s heads were at with speeding.

Of 891 respondents, 46 per cent said Cold Lake does have a speeding problem, 54 per cent said it was not an issue. 

Those who speeding was a concern then were asked where: 37 per cent said speeding is an issue on arterial roads, 33 per cent on collector, and 30 per cent on local roads. 

The best way to tackle speeding was increased enforcement according to 45 per cent of resident. Thirty-six per cent voted for speed monitors that blink your speed when you drive by. Only 17 per cent voted for speed cameras. 

On local roads, how do you feel about lowering the speed limit from 50 to 40, 51 per cent strongly disagreed and 18 disagreed. Eighteen per cent strongly agreed and 14 per cent agreed. 

In the written feedback, concerns were raised that lowering the limits won’t stop those from speeding, unless there is increased enforcement. Many others said it wasn’t an issue altogether. 

“I didn’t bring it forward just because I wanted to do something, I brought it forward because it was a request from a few citizens that I’ve been speaking to,” said councillor Vicky Lefebvre during last Tuesday’s council meeting. “So it’s not just at a whim and I’m not trying to follow Edmonton or Calgary or whomever. Ultimately, it’s looking at the safety of our citizens, because they’re concerned about traffic areas. 

“But based on the survey and what most people say, I believe that looking at more enforcement…that might be what they’re looking at preferentially.” 

After reviewing the feedback, council decided to forego lowering limits.