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Quadra-Hillside first to get reduced speed-limit signs

Signs will be unveiled in coming weeks to reflect the adoption of a default speed limit of 30 km/h on neighbourhood roads
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City of Victoria road-marking and signs technicians Peter Kayal, left, and Inigo McCaig finish 30 km/h signs at Victoria Public Works on Tuesday. DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

Drivers making their way through Victoria’s Hillside-Quadra neighbourhood will soon be more in touch with their brake pedals as the city starts implementing its new default speed limit this spring.

The first of the new speed-limit signs are being prepared for their unveiling in the coming weeks to reflect the adoption of a new default speed limit of 30 km/h on ­neighbourhood roads. The default speed limit has been 50 km/h.

“Slower speeds mean safer streets and creating more livable neighbourhoods,” said Philip Bellefontaine, Victoria’s director of engineering and public works. “This is just one of the ways we are working towards our goal to eliminate fatalities and ­serious injuries on our roadways.”

The new signage, to be introduced around the city over the next two years, will start appearing in Hillside-Quadra first, followed by Burnside-Gorge in the fall and Oaklands in the winter.

Residents will be notified in advance of the signs being installed and the speed limit change.

Promotional lawn signs and window decals will be available as part of the city’s “We Go Slow” awareness campaign through the website ­victoria.ca/30km.

Placement of the new speed limit signs will be based on factors such as collision ­history, and the presence of vulnerable populations, parks, schools, care facilities and ­community centres.

Municipal councils have the authority to set speed limits on roads under their jurisdiction.

The new default limit won’t apply to arterial streets — such as Bay, Blanshard, Cook and Douglas — or secondary arterial streets, such as parts of Dallas Road, Finlayson Street, Government Street and Fort Street, or ­collector streets such as Belleville Street, Caledonia ­Avenue, Foul Bay Road and Menzies Street.

Local streets are those that are typically in residential areas, do not have a centre line and are used by fewer than 1,000 vehicles per day.

The initiative was inspired by Vision Zero, created in Europe in the 1990s, which aims to reduce ­fatalities through better road design, speed ­reduction and other measures.

A city report prepared last year noted collisions with vulnerable road users at 30 km/h or less correlate with a 10 per cent probability of death, compared with a 30 per cent probability of death at 40 km/h or 85 per cent at 50 km/h.

“Victoria is one of only a handful of Canadian municipalities and the first in the capital region to reduce speed limits on all local streets to 30 km/h,” said Mayor Marianne Alto. “This effort will be supported with ongoing infrastructure investments like speed humps and other traffic calming measures.”

Saanich will follow suit with lower speed limits on nine traffic corridors this spring. Mayor Dean Murdock said signage should start appearing this spring. The speed limit will mostly drop to 40 km/h on the nine corridors, with a few stretches of 25 km/h or 30 km/h.

The first phase of the Saanich program will target rural roads and that is expected to be complete by the fall.

The first to be targeted are nine of what Saanich calls Type B streets — those with a continuous yellow centre line.

At the top of the list are Sayward Road to Cadboro Bay Road, Cedar Hill Cross Road, Harriet Road from Gorge Road West to McKenzie Avenue, Tillicum Road, Gorge Road West, Prospect Lake Road, Old West Saanich Road and Oldfield Road, West Saanich Road and Emily Carr Drive.

aduffy@timescolonist.com

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