Q. Why was the speed limit on Point Grey Road cut to 30? Who is accountable for the decision? Why does this area get to exclude commuters while East Van areas do not?
A. Oh, you tricky thing you, sending this question in just as I was also working on a story about the pitch from the Point Grey residents to have cars not just slowed but significantly reduced in number on their street. (As per my story of last week, attached again here in case you missed it.)
The speed limit on Point Grey Road, just to be factually accurate, was not recently cut to 30. It was reduced to 30 quite some time ago, for essentially the same reasons we are hearing this time around: excessive commuter traffic on a narrow residential street that residents say was not meant to be a major arterial, with resultant problems of collisions between cars and bikes, cars and pedestrians, bikes and pedestrians, and cars and cars. As well as people being afraid to cross the street.
The city’s communications department, in answer to the question, sent me this:
Council approved the reduction in speed as part of the Kitsilano Traffic, Cycling and Parking Plan in the early 90’s. The Kitsilano Plan, which was approved by Council in 1992, resulted in the installation of 30 km/hr signs at the mini-parks (playgrounds) along Point Grey Road to improve safety, for cyclists using the narrow pavement and for pedestrians crossing the street. A number of traffic calming measures have been implemented in locations throughout the City, including a speed reduction to 30 km/hr along West Hastings Street.
I realize that a lot of people, then and now, are suspicious that this is some kind of favour to rich people along the road. But the city has put in lowered speed limits and even road barriers in many parts of the city.
The interior of the West End is virtually impassable, after its residents lobbied for traffic calming in the 1970s. There are many routes that have been blocked or calmed in the blocks east of Victoria, where commuters tended to stream through the streets as a way of getting through from the Prior/Venables exit from downtown. Dundas east of Nanaimo is another area where a militant resident group has gotten a lot of attention from city engineers, who have done a number of things to try to divert or slow traffic. East Hastings, as all the world knows since it was put in place a couple of years ago, has a 30-kilometre speed limit.
One reason why I think you might believe the limit just got reduced is that the neighbourhood asked for new signs to be put up recently. They’ve also tried to put pressure on police to do more ticketing, although I didn’t get the sense from those I talked to that they felt anything was happening on that front.
