EDMONTON

A new community group is picking up the torch to push for lower residential speed limits, but this time they're aiming for a province-wide change.

"We need to reduce the speed. The impact is huge," said Habib Fatmi, staff member at the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues, which voted unanimously to launch a new 40 kilometre per hour campaign at its recent winter general meeting.

The Government of Alberta sets the default speed to 50 kilometers per hour on any "highway located within an urban area" through the Traffic Safety Act. Edmonton city council has debated lowering the speed on residential streets to 40 km/h as recently as 2012, but it cost $500,000 just to test the concept in six pilot neighbourhoods because of the number of speed limit signs needed.

Fatmi said the EFCL campaign will be aimed at provincial legislation to make the shift easier. Since only 45 out of 157 leagues were at the last meeting, he'll work to build support among the rest of the leagues, before they launch a public campaign and reach out to counterparts in Calgary.

He hopes the success mirrors popular grassroots movements like 20's Plenty in the United Kingdom, which launched in 2007 and has seen many neighbourhoods in Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool make the switch to 20 miles per hour. It increases safety and lets people safely walk and bike in their neighbourhood, Fatmi said, pointing to statistics from the World Health Organization that show pedestrians have a 90 per cent chance of surviving when struck by a vehicle travelling 30 km/h, compared to a less than 50 per cent chance after an impact at 45 km/h.

"It's a significant difference," he said. "Enforcement is another issue, but people will start following it."

In a statement, Aileen Machell, press secretary for Transportation Minister Brian Mason, said the province "isn't conducting research on the issue at this point but our government is willing to look at options. We will talk with municipalities to hear their thoughts on the issue."

Fatmi introduced the idea at transportation committee this week, after joking Edmonton's potholes could have the same effect.

Coun. Scott McKeen said he'd even support a 30 km/h limit on streets that are purely residential because the road in front of someone's house is not just a highway in a urban area. It's part of a neighbourhood, meant for block parties and street hockey. "They're part of the community, not just part of the road network."

But that's a polarizing position. Some council colleagues think he's "crazy" to suggest it, but in his central ward, residential speed comes up door-knocking again and again.

Part of the challenge is how differently residential streets have been designed across Edmonton. During the street-car era, roads in McKeen's ward were built so narrow only one car can fit between parked vehicles on either side. In the relatively newer neighbourhoods of Coun. Micheal Oshry's ward, residents complain about cars driving 60 km/h on roads that are straight and wide, as if built for speed.

Forty would feel slow, said Oshry. Nobody is asking for 40 km/h there. They're asking for photo radar in neighbourhoods and police enforcement, said Oshry. "You can make it 40, but if you're not properly enforcing it, people will still go 60."

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