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- View Royal councillors vote to reduce road speed and save lives
View Royal councillors vote to reduce road speed and save lives
A number of municipalities have followed suit in the last year and have adopted a 30km/hr limit in their streets

While the Motor Vehicle Act in BC has not made the decisions to reduce a blanket municipal speed limit from 50km/hr, a number of municipalities in the CRD are voting to move to 30km/hr limits on certain roads.
In a Committee of the Whole meeting on July 9, View Royal Town Council discussed the possibility of reducing speed limits to 30 km/hr on some of its roads to ensure the safety of residents and to reduce the chances of traffic fatalities.
Neighbouring municipalities have made similar moves. Over a span of years, beginning in 2010, Langford opted to take a more ad hoc approach and, in bylaws, identified a number of individual roads where speed limits are reduced to 30km/hr.
Victoria City Council dropped municipal speed limits to 30km/hr in March of last year. And in Saanich, council voted to do the same just last month.
View Royal Council is also considering reducing the speed limit of Island Highway, between Admirals Road and the Thetis interchange, from 50 km/h to 40 km/h. The majority of View Royal councillors were in favour of having a single speed limit for all residential streets. The move comes out of its 2023 Active Transportation Network Plan and staff reporting on its Speed Limit Reduction Strategy.
Coun. Don Brown described the proposed limit as being “excruciatingly slow” and suggested instead, View Royal adopt a mix of 30 km/hr and 40 km/hr speeds throughout its neighbourhoods, as Langford has done.
Data collected by a number of domestic and international organizations shows that driving slower saves lives. At a time when more BC residents have died in traffic incidents than in over a decade, the move seems to be responsive and proactive.
In its Save Lives, Slow Down report, The World Health Organization states that 30 km/h is best practice for road speed unless there is existing separated cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. Understood as a key element of a “safe systems approach” that acknowledges human vulnerability to injury but also to making mistakes.
Safe speeds is one of the four main elements of the WHO’s “safe systems approach” to road safety, along with safe roads and roadsides, safe vehicles and safe road users.
The Global Network for Road Safety Legislators, also recommends 30 km/h speed limits.
The Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals has published data showing the number of pedestrians who will die at an impact of 50km/hr is roughly 80%. Conversely, 90% of pedestrians will survive an impact of a vehicle traveling 30km/hr.
According to the BC Coroner’s office, 331 British Columbians died in traffic crashes in 2023, a 10% increase over the previous year. Of those fatalities, 70 were pedestrians, 11 were cyclists and three of them were wheelchair users. South Vancouver Island was the region where 10 of those deaths occurred.
The BC Motor Vehicle Act established two basic speed limits on all public roads: 80km/hr outside municipalities and 50km/hr within municipalities. Municipalities can alter speed limits within their communities through the implementation of by-laws.
Slowing vehicles in municipalities is not just about saving lives but making roads safer and easier for people travelling to and from schools and shops on foot, by scooter, or by bike.
The benefits to speed reduction go beyond protecting human lives but extends to prolonging the life of a vehicle, reducing expenditures on fuel and the release of toxic pollutants into the atmosphere. A car going 50 km/h requires 2.25 times the energy to sustain a speed of 50km/hr, compared to 30 km/h. A speed reduction to 30 km/h reduces diesel nitrous oxide release and other non-exhaust (wear and tear) particulate pollution by 8%.
The speed reduction required for a vehicle moving at 50km/hr to stop is nearly double that of a vehicle moving at 30 km/h and a speed reduction to 30 km/h doubles the available reaction time for everyone involved, increasing the likelihood of avoiding a crash.
It comes down to safety over speed or convenience.
“We may upset a few people but who cares. Because the reality is that it is good for the community, it’s good for the residents, and it’s going to save lives,” said View Royal councillor Ron Mattson.