The speed limit around the city of Grande Prairie could be changed with a new policy. The procedure could be made to deal with traffic issues like speeders and people disobeying the rules of the road in residential areas. City Administrator Lara Widdifield brought up different ways to curb the rule breaking at a recent committee meeting.
“Psychologically without traffic parked on either side, if you have big wide pavement, you tend to drive faster. Whether you want to or not, there is no perceived obstacles because you think it is reasonable and safe.”
She says the policy could outline things like widening roads or lowering a speed limit in residential areas. Councillor Chris Thiessen presented the idea of skipping the policy making and going straight to lowering speed limits around the city.
“Following the example of other municipalities who have changed it broadly through their policy, I just thought that if we want to control the speed for drivers across the city, why not drop the speed limit down to 40 kilometres an hour?”
Although his idea to lower the speed didn’t get picked up by other councillors and he didn’t support the motion to create a new policy, Thiessen says that he will be supportive in the process of creating a new procedure.
The information from the meeting will go back to administration.