City needs to lower speed limits

Recently the Union of BC Municipalities rejected a BC Provincial Government proposal to reduce residential speed limits from 50 km/h to 40 km/h.  I support such a proposal and agree with the following letter-writer to the Burnaby Now.


Lower residential speed limits needed

Thomas Hasek / Burnaby Now
October 2, 2013 07:54 AM

Dear Editor:

Earlier this month the Union of B.C. Municipalities voted down a proposal from Victoria to lower the speed limit in urban areas to 40 km/hr from 50. The prevailing arguments seemed to be that it would bog down traffic too much and is not appropriate in many localities. Fair enough, but what about trying to introduce a lower limit on strictly residential streets and possibly even raising it on arterials? Imposing a one-size-fits-all rule for the whole province may not be feasible, but at the municipal level we could surely try and reduce vehicular carnage. I note that Vancouver has a 30 km/hr limit on designated bike routes, and perhaps that could be applied in Burnaby as well.

I happen to live on a bike route, and along my street I have seen cars reaching over 100 km/hr in the two blocks (250 metres) between stop signs, even if drivers don't ignore the stop signs altogether. The uncontrolled intersection between the signs finally had stop signs installed in one direction a few years ago after much lobbying and several major collisions, one near fatal. I realize that speeding is as much an issue of enforcement as regulation, but if regulation is stringent, enforcement is readily enhanced.

What I would propose is a 30 km/hr speed limit on strictly residential streets, particularly those that are less than two traffic lanes wide with parked cars on both sides, like the newly paved and curbed roads that now appear to be standard. Designated - and wider - arterials, no more than about 500 metres from any residential property, might have their speed limit raised to 60 km/hr to compensate, and traffic would likely move faster on average. Major arterials like Kingsway or Willingdon Avenue, particularly in rush hour, might even have the speed limit raised to 70 km/hr to reflect the reality of traffic when the curb lanes are clear.

Thomas Hasek, via email

© Copyright 2013

30% of cars on Brentlawn go over 60 km/h

Wanting to have an idea of how many cars speed through Brentlawn Drive during rush hour, I decided to record the traffic between 4:35 and 5:59.  The distance within view of the camera being over 100 meters,  I timed how long it took for each car to pass through the view of the camera to get a rough average speed along the stretch in view of the camera.  The speeds are likely greater than I measured as I based my calculations on 100 meters and the distance is actually greater.  As the title suggests, many cars are well over the speed limit.  Travelling at 10 km/h over the speed limit on a major road is considered to be pushing the limits.  Doing the same thing on Brentlawn Drive is more than just pushing the limits; it is excessive.  To make it worse, the drivers were speeding while it was pouring rain.  Here is the breakdown of the stats:

A total of 315 cars were recorded passing through Brentlawn Drive between 4:35 and 5:59 on Friday February 24.  

• 158 cars travelled below 55 km/h
• 157 cars (49.8%) travelled in excess of 55 km/h
• 96 cars (30.4%) travelled in excess of 60 km/h
• 57 cars (18.1%) travelled in excess of 65 km/h
• 27 cars (8.6%) travelled in excess of 70 km/h
• 8 cars (2.5%) travelled in excess of 75 km/h
• 2 cars travelled in excess of 80 km/h

There would have been higher speeds and more speeders if oncoming traffic had not slowed drivers down and if it hadn't been raining.

Here are some of the highlights (lowlights, really):

Traffic worsening on Brentlawn Drive

Because Brentlawn Drive is a local collecter street in Burnaby, many drivers will use it to avoid the traffic on Lougheed Hwy and Willingdon Ave to get to wherever they are going.  However, drivers don't just use Brentlawn during the day.  They will cut through here at night at high speeds without consideration for the residents. Many drive at excessive speeds through this residential neighbourhood.  Unless Brentlawn Drive is calmed with a combination of stop signs, bulges and/or speed humps, the number of inconsiderate drivers that whizz through at high speeds will only increase as the Brentwood Town Centre increases in population.

The following 12-minute compilation of video clips is from a 30-minute recording of traffic on Brentlawn Drive on Feb 10 from 3:00-3:30pm.

Speeding all night

The following footage of traffic on Brentlawn Drive was taken between 10:45 PM and 3:30 AM and shows how drivers speeding through this neighbourhood take liberties throughout the night.

Residents of Brentlawn appear to be organizing to present their concerns to the City.  Hopefully enough residents will voice their concerns to convince the City of Burnaby that it is significant enough of a problem that requires it to implement measures to improve this situation.

I hope this and other videos will give people an idea of the liberties that drivers tend to take when driving through Brentwood Park and other neighbourhoods like it.

Rude Rat Runner

It took only 7 days into the new year for a driver to hurl a swear word at me as they sped by at 70km per hour along Brentlawn Drive where I live.  The reason he yelled, "F*&k you!" at me was because I had yelled out, "Slow down!" as he whizzed by.  What a gem of a person he must be to think that he is too good to be told to lawfully obey the speed limit in a residential neighbourhood.  After all, who do I think I am wanting someone to drive safely at the speed limit or at least closer to it than at 70km per hour?

Speeding through Brentwood Park is going to become a bigger problem as more development occurs and the residents of the neighbourhood need to vocalize concerns about it.

Reduced speed limit on cycling routes not a deterrent for speeders

The City of Burnaby has recently proposed reducing the speed limit for cars to 30 km/h on its cycling routes (Vancouver Sun article) to increase cyclist safety along those routes. While it is a good idea to legally reduce the speed limit along cycling routes, it would only be a small first step in creating safer roads for cyclists. It is one thing to officially have a lower limit, and another thing to enforce the speed limit in those areas.

A street like Delta Ave which has Brentwood Park Elementary and Holy Cross schools on either side still sees vehicles travelling in excess of 70 km/h during the day while the speed limit has been 30 km/h as per school zone standards for years. I have yet to see a car pulled over for speeding along Delta Ave near the schools during the day or night.

In order to make the idea work, the next steps after creating reduced speed zones should be to (1) add traffic calming measures to the affected areas (narrower road and wider sidewalk), and (2) speed enforcement by the police. Until the idea is fully implemented by including the 2 steps mentioned, it will not make cycling routes safer.