The city’s transportation division is proposing new criteria for staff to use when deciding whether to lower the posted speed limit on residential streets to 30 km/h.

Currently, a 30 km/h sign can be installed only on neighborhood and collector roads in conjunction with other traffic calming measures, such as speed bumps.

Under the proposed policy, those measures wouldn’t be required. The new criteria include, among other things, that the road be travelled by fewer than 8,000 vehicles a day and that the change be supported by a petition signed by at least 25 per cent of households on that street.

If they’re obeyed, lower speed limits reduce the severity of collisions and injuries, says the staff report to be considered Thursday by the public works and infrastructure committee. The new criteria, if adopted, “will ensure that the speed limit is appropriate for the street being considered,” the report says. Any decision would still need council approval.

“This doesn’t affect our main streets, nor will it impact congestion or people’s ability to navigate through the city,” says Councillor Josh Matlow (open Josh Matlow's policard), who has been advocating for 30 km/h on neighborhood streets.

“When you’re a driver and you enter a neighhourhood, it’s about changing the culture so that you just know automatically to slow down. There’s a piecemeal set of regulations throughout the city, it’s not predictable for the driver whether or not to go 30 or 40,” he said on Easter Monday.

Matlow said he, like many others, was deeply saddened by the death last year of Georgia Walsh in Leaside. The 7-year-old died of severe head trauma after she was struck by a turning vehicle.

“I have spoken to countless parents who want to see the city do everything it can to protect kids, along with all pedestrians.”

A pedestrian hit by a vehicle travelling at 50 km/h has an 85 per cent chance of dying, while a pedestrian struck by a vehicle at 30 km/h has only a 5 per cent chance of dying, according to Toronto’s Road to Health report.

If approved, the overall cost will depend on the number of requests the city receives. The cost of manufacturing and installing one sign is about $225.

The report includes examples from other cities that have adopted some form of 30 km/h speed limit:

New York City has created neighborhood “slow zones” where the speed limit is reduced from 30 mph (48 km/h) to 20 mph (32 km/h.) Select residential areas have Slow Zone signs, 20 mph pavement markings and speed bumps.

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Edmonton recently implemented 30 km/h speed limits between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on school days where signs are posted.