Photo: Luc Rempel

Slower speed limits could be coming to Sicamous, but council agreed to gather more professional and community input before making any sudden decisions.

At the Dec. 11 District of Sicamous committee of the whole meeting, Darrell Symbaluk, operations manager, brought forward research he had done on lowering the speed limits in residential areas of Sicamous.

“This came forward a few weeks ago, and the natural next step is to talk to the RCMP, see what they think,” he said. “The RCMP is looking at one metric, how many accidents?

“There weren't a lot of accidents, and so they're not seeing a real problem but that's not the whole picture.”

He said after looking further into the research around municipal speed limits, he had found a lot of support for lowering speed limits in residential areas.

Vision Zero, an international advocacy group for safer roadways, recommends municipalities lower residential speeds to 30 kilometres per hour.

Symbaluk said his research was not exhaustive, but he found many B.C. municipalities that have moved to 30 or 40 kilometres per hour in residential areas.

He also listed things council should keep in mind while considering the decision, including additional bicycles on the road thanks to improved bike infrastructure, better active transportation opportunities and the large amount of seniors in Sicamous.

Council weighs in

Mayor Colleen Anderson reminded council when elected officials changed the speed limit on Old Town Road from 50 kilometres per hour to 40, it was a spot of contention.

“I would suggest some community input, as opposed to just changing the speed limit,” she said. “And I know that we changed the speed limit because of corners and the development going on that road, but it was a big surprise and a hot spot there for a while.”

Some councillors were very supportive of a move to slower speed limits.

“I think this is great,” said Coun. Siobhan Rich. “And I think it should be 30. There's no stop signs in the tree streets, and it is a constant complaint that I get about the tree streets.”

She also supported the idea of community input on the issue, but re-iterated she believes a 30 kilometre per hour speed limit in residential areas is a good idea.

“If you spend any time outside here in the winter or summer walking, there's way too many people going way too fast,” she added. “Thirty isn't that hard to do.”

Other councillors felt council should take a more patient and considered approach to making a change like this.

“If the data is suggesting that there isn't a massive problem and there hasn't been accidents, I'm not saying that we don't take a look at it, but we need to just be mindful of this,” said Coun. Ian Baillie.

“If we go ahead and we change it from 50 down to 30 we should also figure out what the cost is, because we're going to have to replace these signs and everything.”

He said a change to 30 kilometres per hour without plans for additional enforcement would not have the desired effect.

“First of all, what if someone goes 40,” he said. “I wouldn't want to set a target or a speed limit, where then at the end of the day, you have mass non-compliance."

“I'm not saying absolutely no, but I think we have to be a lot more mindful of this and think this through, rather than just going on a gut instinct,” he added.

Getting professional input

Coun. Malcolm Makayev recommended the district hire a traffic engineer before making any quick decisions.

“We're talking about stuff that we're not really experts on,” he said. “If we're going to change something, I think we should hire a traffic engineer to have a look at our community and then do the recommendations they come up with.”

Darrell Garceau, chief administrative officer, spoke up to remind council the district would be undertaking an active transportation study, paid for with grant funds, that would also be looking at road safety and trouble intersections in 2025.

Bailie made a motion to include a review of speed limits in town in the upcoming study, which council unanimously approved.