City to lower residential speed limits

The City of Edmonton is working toward lowering the speed limit for traffic in residential neighbourhoods from the current 50 kilometres an hour.

Councillors on the city's transportation committee voted on Tuesday in favour of starting pilot projects that would lower the limit to 30or 40 kilometres an hour.

The pilot projectswould be done in three to five different neighbourhoods, beginning in the spring and continuing for six months.

Any newsignage will have to be very clear to avoid confusion, said Gerry Shimko, executive director of the city's office of traffic safety.

"Creating that entry into the neighbourhood where the signs are prominent [so that] people can see that, people understand that ... the big key in this is public awareness," Shimko said.

Officials from the city's transportation department are to come back to the committee in March with a more detailed report on which city neighbourhoods will be used in the pilot projects.

City Council as a whole will then have to vote to give final approval to the test projects.