City council shied away from making any changes to the speed limits around Weyburn on Monday night, opting instead to keep the status quo for the most part, including the school zone speed of 30 kilometres an hour 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Council was also given an option to increase the speed limit of Railway Avenue to 50 km/h, but councillors decided to keep this discussion for another time when all arterial roads in the city could be discussed as to whether the speed limit should increase or not.
The option was suggested for school and playground zones to limit the 30 km/h zone to between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., but council wouldn’t support this change, with only Mayor Marcel Roy voting in favour of it after some discussions that at times heated up.
Asked why this time limit was suggested, engineer Nader Keshta explained that staff checked with the school zone speeds in 10 Saskatchewan cities, and found some left it in effect 24/7, but most cities limited the time, such as from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Humboldt on weekdays, to a 40 km/h zone in Regina from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Coun. Jeff Chessall said he was not in favour of the suggested time limit, noting that children are in playgrounds after 6 p.m., especially in the summer. He noted he might support it if there were flashing lights to remind motorists of when the speed zone was in effect.
Coun. Dick Michel said he also could support flashing lights, but balked at raising the speed on Railway Avenue to 50, noting there are businesses along there where customers back into the road to exit the parking lots, making it dangerous to have a higher speed limit.
Mayor Roy said to an extent the responsibility to be safe lies with the drivers, and pointed out that city polls favoured going to a higher speed. His voice rising, he demanded of both Chessall and Michel if they were going with their points of view instead of the expressed wishes of city residents in the polls.
“You’re not going to listen to what the people say? Do you believe in polls or not? Do we do away with polls or no?” he asked.
Coun. Chessall said he might put more stock in the polls if the poll questions were worded better, and more information had been given to those voting in the polls.
Coun. Brad Wheeler agreed with not changing the speed zones for schools and playgrounds, but wanted to see arterial roads have their speeds increased to 50 km/h.
Coun. Wheeler’s feeling is that in addition to Railway Avenue, major arteries like First Avenue and Government Road should also have their speed limits increased to 50 km/h, calling it “ludicrous” to drive at 40 km all the way through through city on First Avenue when it’s part of Highway 13.
As to the city-wide limit of 40, he said it was likely set at that speed “before a lot of us were born” when vehicles didn’t have power steering or safety features like modern vehicles do.
Coun. Jeff Richards enjoyed all the discussion, saying, “This is what I signed up for,” but then pointed out there is a difference between a poll and a plebiscite, where polls are not binding while plebiscites are.
He pointed out that police chief Marlo Pritchard had told councillors that increasing a speed from 30 to 40 km adds 8.5 metres to the braking distance needed for a vehicle.
“That’s significant. When I first got on council, I wanted to get rid of the 30-km zone, but now I’ve changed my mind,” said Coun. Richards.
“I think we’ve batted this around for a couple of months now. 40 km an hour has worked for a long time, so I don’t know why we’re trying to change something that isn’t broke,” said Coun. Mel Van Betuw, suggesting council had more important issues to be spending time on.
In the end, council decided not to change the school and playground zones at all, and left the speed on Railway the same to be discussed at a future time.
