Ottawa council aims for lower city speed limits
Last Updated: Friday, October 2, 2009 | 12:40 PM ET
CBC News
The City of Ottawa wants to reduce the default speed limit in residential areas by 10 km/h.
"We have an aggressive driver culture in this town," said Coun. Jacques Legendre, who first brought forward a proposal to change the default limit to 40 km/h from 50 km/h on residential streets.
A change to the default speed limit would require Ontario government approval — something Legendre thinks the province is unlikely to do.
A staff report recommends asking the Ontario government for the change anyway, but also recommends making it easier for residents to get their local speed limits changed in the meantime.
The city's transportation committee will vote on the proposal next Wednesday, along with a proposal making it easier for residents to get the speed limit lowered on their street.
Under it, the speed limit on a street will be dropped to 40 km/h if 75 per cent of its residents support the change.
Legendre said Friday that city councillors continually get requests to reduce speeds on local roads. Three years ago he asked staff to look into which would cost less — having a default residential speed limit of 40 km/h or keeping the default speed at 50 km/h but adding new signs with the lower speed limit to many residential streets.
The staff report calls on the city to set aside $100,000 to add 20 new school zones.
