Calgary’s city council has endorsed a motion to lower the speed limits in residential areas by as much as 20 km/h

By a vote of 8-6, the motion passed. City administration will now study whether the speed limit on residential streets should be 30 km/h or 40 km/h and if collector roads should be included.

“We’ve basically said we endorse it but we’re going to send it back to administration for a little more study so early next year we’ll have the opportunity to make that 40/30 decision and what roads and then by the end of next year we’ll have an implementation plan to look at if council doesn’t change its mind,” said Mayor Nenshi. “The wording today was very deliberate and it was that council endorses the idea, so we do want to do it, but the question is how and where.”

A motion that was put forward by Ward 7 Councillor Druh Farrell to lower the speed limit from 50km/h to 30 km/h had been postponed from September 10.

Farrell says she was pleased with the result of the vote that supports a move she says will make neighbourhoods more safe, comfortable and livable.

“What every member of council heard during the election while we were door-knocking was this was the number one issue for communities and it was universal. Every single ward," said Farrell. "When I was door-knocking , the level of desperation from people who were worried about the safety of their children was intense. We have to act.”

“It’s not a war on cars. It’s about building a safe city.”

Ward 14 Councillor Peter Demong was among those who voted against the motion and questioned council's approach to the latest in a series of calls for change. "“There’s been a lot of stuff happening at the City of Calgary over the last few years and people need a break from change this to change that to make decisions here, make decisions there."

"What we’re basically being told, what was put on the table for us, was make these changes and then we’re going to get a report on how we’re going to do it, what’s it going to look like and the engagement - we’ll tell the people what we’re doing," said Demong. "That’s backwards to everything that we’ve always said we should be doing. Get a report, make decisions based on the facts and the data that was presented in front of you. You do engagement to see if your constituents want to do something. You don’t make the decision and then say now we’re going to go do engagement.”

Mayor Nenshi says the City of Calgary now has the power to change the unposted speed limit within city limits as a result of the City Charter discussions and there would not be a need to erect signs on every neighbourhood street.. "We can say that the unposted limit is 30 or 40 or whatever, therefore if there’s no sign, that’s what it is and we’d only have to put signs where it’s not that.”

The eight councillors who voted in favour of the motion were Carra, Chahal, Davison, Farrell, Gondek, Jones, Keating and Nenshi.

The six councillors who voted against the motion were Chu, Colley-Urquhart, Demong, Farkas, Magliocca and Sutherland.

Councillor Wooley was not in attendance.

According to the World Health Organization, a pedestrian stands a 90 percent chance of survival if hit by a vehicle travelling at 30 km/h or less and that an increase of 1km/h in mean vehicle speed results in an increase of four to five percent in the incidence of fatal collisions.

Calgary police say 64 pedestrians were killed on city streets between 2012 and 2017. Only eight per cent of those happened on residential streets while the rest occurred on major routes.