July 9,2025
RED FM News Desk
Vancouver city councillors have approved a new plan aimed at making local streets safer by reducing speed limits. The plan, passed on Wednesday, includes recommendations from a city staff report to lower speed limits on minor residential roads to 30 kilometres per hour.
This move is part of the city’s ‘Vision Zero’ initiative, which seeks to eliminate serious injuries and traffic-related deaths through strategic road safety measures. Similar policies have already been implemented in parts of Europe, New York, Seattle, and Edmonton—where the city dropped speed limits to 40 km/h in 2021.
Sandy James, a former Vancouver City Planner and current managing director of Walk Metro Vancouver, supports the change.
She explained that a pedestrian or cyclist hit by a vehicle travelling at 50 km/h has only a 10–15% chance of survival, whereas that survival rate jumps to 80% if the vehicle is going 30 km/h. Slower speeds also give drivers more time to react and reduce harmful vehicle emissions.
James pointed to the U.K. as a model, where reducing neighbourhood speed limits to 30 km/h resulted in a 40% drop in collisions. In Edinburgh, the change saved an estimated $20 million CAD annually by reducing crashes, serious injuries, and fatalities—while also allowing residents to use their streets more freely and safely.
She emphasized the importance of such measures in a rainy city like Vancouver, where the risk to pedestrians and cyclists is higher during dark, wet months.
To ensure compliance without relying heavily on police enforcement, the city will use existing traffic-calming measures like speed humps and narrow streets.
The plan includes creating 25 designated “slow zones” in neighbourhoods such as Hastings-Sunrise, the West End, Mount Pleasant, and Killarney. The rollout is expected to cost $350,000 and is based on traffic volumes and proximity to schools and parks.
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