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Block, Coun. Bev Dubois and Mayor Charlie Clark voted in favour of pursuing the possibility of a lower speed limit, while Coun. Randy Donauer and Coun. Zach Jeffries voted against it.

Donauer said residents have told him they want better enforcement of existing speed limits.

“I don’t see a big public call for a change to our speed limits,” Donauer said. “My experience is that everybody wants people to go slower on their street, but they don’t want to slow down in the rest of the city. And that’s a problem for us.”

The committee also supported examining the possibility of playground speed zones and examining the issue of speeding in areas with high concentrations of seniors.

The seniors inquiry began with Dubois, who originally called for the possibility of a seniors’ zone in the Nutana Suburban Centre, which she represents. Dubois agreed to amend the request to make it less specific, although the potential for seniors’ zones still exists depending on the outcome of the study.

The committee heard high school speed zones will also be reconsidered as part of the whole discussion. If the city were to decide to lower the speed limits on residential roads, it would not apply to so-called arterial streets or connectors.

That could pose a problem; one of the city’s main east-west streets, Taylor Street, currently has three high schools with 30 km/h school zones within about one kilometre.

“I do have to say, it’s always been perplexing to me why high schools are included,” Block said. The city’s director of transportation, Jay Magus, said it’s not considered best practice to include high schools in school zones.