SASKATOON — The City Council’s Standing Policy Committee on Transportation thumbed down the proposal of lowering the speed limit from 50 kilometres per hour to 40 kph in residential areas but approved a motion by one of the members for the Administration present a cost feasibility report of having a neighbourhood speed watch program instead.
The Committee voted 4-2 with Mayor Charlie Clark and Councillor Hillary Gough (Ward 2) supporting the proposal during their meeting held via video conference call last Tuesday.
Committee chair Bev Dubois (Ward 9) along with Councillors Randy Donauer (Ward 5), Zach Jeffries (Ward 10), and David Kirton (Ward 3) voted against. Councillors Darren Hill (Ward 1) and Mairin Loewen (Ward 7) were not committee members but also attended the meeting that was held via video conference.
Councillor Kirton then recommended having a Speed Watch program, which would be similar to the Neighbourhood Watch or the Crime Watch, where volunteers will be provided with their own radar speed guns.
“Instead, today I wish to bring to light another measure that could be used and is already seeing success in other communities in Saskatoon and beyond and it is cheap, and it's called Speed Watch. Think of neighborhood watch, but with a radar gun,” said Kirton.
“Speed Watch volunteers would monitor speeds where a problem is perceived to be, they would use portable radar equipment and a camera. They record the speed and the license plate, pass the information on to police who [will] then send a letter to the registered owner of that vehicle.”
He added that the owner of the vehicle will then be visited by the police if ever he or she gets caught again speeding by the volunteers. “In some communities, if three letters are sent, the police will carry out further investigation. Another very important aspects of speed watch, is that it would get police information on where they need to increase enforcement of speeding.”
Kirton then mentioned what British Columbia has done with the help of the Insurance Corporation of BC.
“In [B.C.], ICBC, which is the same as SGI here, sponsors and supports these programs right across that province. There are a lot of Speed Watch programs in B.C.”
“I would hope that SGI would also find the program worthy of support through its grants as it does for the speed display boards that we see in the city.”
The Speed Watch program will have the volunteers monitor areas where there’s a large number of speeding motorists. They will have portable radar equipment and a camera, and will record the licence plate of the offenders that they will forward to the Saskatoon Police Service. The speeding motorist will then get a visit from the police.
The administration made the recommendation of reducing the speed limit from 50 kph to 40 kph on local and collector streets in residential areas after several members of the City Council received repeated concerns over speeding. A report with technical information and survey results from residents following a review of the issue was then conducted.
