(Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Town of Coaldale to look into potentially lowering speed limits

Mar 1, 2022 | 1:58 PM

COALDALE, AB – Lower speed limits might soon be in effect in Coaldale.

At Monday’s regular council meeting, town council voted to direct administration to look into the possibility of reducing the allowable speeds for traffic in the community.

Mayor Jack Van Rijn says this is an issue that has a long history of debate in Coaldale, and one that he wants to investigate further.

“What we’re looking at doing is, in certain areas of Coaldale, reducing the speed limit from 50 [kilometres per hour] to 40, and in some cases, possibly from 50 to 30.”

Over the next couple of months, town staff will identify key locations to conduct speed testing, and combine that data with information from a separate traffic calming program. Recommendations will then be presented to council as to which areas may or may not benefit from lower speed limits.

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Before that work commences, Van Rijn noted in this week’s council meeting brief video that there is at least one road that he believes should have its speed limit reduced.

“We’ve had many complaints. I’ll use Cottonwood Drive as one example, where, because that’s a nice long, straight road, that people aren’t necessarily following the speed limit, and more so in the playground zone that is posted there.”

As Highway 3 is regulated by the provincial government and not the municipal one, Coaldale Town Council would not be able to make any decisions regarding driving speeds there.

As part of the decision-making process, the town looked into several other communities that had already dropped their speed limits, including bigger centres like Calgary and Edmonton, as well as smaller towns like Nanton and Okotoks.

All of them had found that reduced speeds resulted in greater levels of safety for both drivers and pedestrians, and particularly in the cases of smaller communities, did not drastically affect commute times.

Traffic safety has been a key priority for the Town of Coaldale, especially in recent months. Last week, all school zones in the community were converted into playground zones, meaning the 30 km/hr speed limit would be in effect year-round.

READ MORE: School zones being converted to playground zones in Coaldale this week

In the video below, Van Rijn discusses the proceedings and decisions from the February 28 regular council meeting, including the one on speed limits.