By Tim Schaefer, resident of Sunnyside
In May 2013, a campaign named “30 for Sunnyside” was launched with the mission to lower the speed limit in Sunnyside to 30 km/h. A blog and social media accounts were activated, poster boards went up on light-posts and there was even coverage by local media. The goal was simple: Make the neighbourhood safer for people through a lower speed limit. Then on June 21, the most significant event to hit the neighbourhood in a generation happened: The Flood of 2013.
Photo of posters from the 2013 “30 for Sunnyside” campaign.
The water’s impact on the Bow river’s left bank neighbourhood was too much and in 2013 the speed limit campaign just couldn’t gain the mindshare of its residents. Everyone was focused on rebuilding and lobbying for more infrastructure to prevent future disasters.
Fast forward to 2021, a much larger 30 km/h speed limit initiative is now underway in another city, perhaps better known for its left bank (Rive Gauche). On August 30, 2021, Paris, France with a metro-population of 12 million, lowered it’s speed limit to 30 km/h! Backed by the positive firsthand experience that COVID measures provided to the streetscape, Paris is aiming to reduce injury and fatalities as well as lower noise and pollution that are all caused by people when they drive vehicles above 30 km/h.
Anyone following this topic will know other cities have also made this change and in Calgary we too have lowered the speed limit for vehicles in 2021. The City’s so-called “unposted speed limit”, meaning any street that doesn’t otherwise have a speed limit sign posted, was lowered from 50 km/h down to 40 km/h. FYI, the unposted speed limit primarily covers residential streets that don’t have a middle yellow line.
The City council debate that led to the 40 km/h decision included consideration of a 30 km/h speed limit just like Paris. In the end, it was decided based on City administration’s recommendation in a 32 page technical report, that because the majority of Calgary streets within scope were designed and built for higher speeds that people’s compliance to 30 km/h would be low. The ensuing mixed speeds of complying drivers and those driving the higher design speed would be a dangerous mix.
While the outcome of the 2021 Council’s decision was 40, it wasn’t a ”No to 30” but rather a “Let’s prepare for 30”. The reason being it was also decided by Council that going forward all new and retrofitted residential streets will be designed and built for 30 km/h. This will then set the stage for a future lowering of the unposted speed limit to 30 km/h.
Looking at the City’s general argument that Calgary streets aren’t yet designed for 30, it doesn't really apply to our 100 year old neighbourhood. Even the City’s technical report acknowledges some neighbourhoods will be ready earlier. Hillhurst Sunnyside streets are generally not built to the car-age standard, most are already narrow enough that their design speed is low. Gladstone and 7 St NW are good examples that come to mind. Others like the streets like 11 St NW, 1 Ave NW and others are not far off and simple traffic calming measures could bring them in line. That said, we do have excessively wide streets like 2 Ave and 7 Ave NW that will require more significant work such as those proposed in the Kensington Improvement Area streetscape engagement.
So the question bears asking, if Calgary is eventually going to implement a 30 km/h limit and if the design speed of our neighbourhood’s streets are very close to being ready:
Are we ready to lead Calgary into the future with a 30 km/h limit in our community in 2022?
We could reap all the benefits this change has to offer years before Calgary applies it to the city as a whole. Our kids (and adults) could realize the safety benefits 30 km/h brings not just infront of their schools but anywhere and anytime they walk in the neighbourhood. Our streets would become less prone to cut through traffic and the delivery vans that now frequent our streets would be less dangerous operating at lower speeds.
The only conceivable negative is the additional time it would take to drive in the neighbourhood, but would it really be so bad? The longest distance between two points in Hillhurst Sunnyside is about 2 km. Driving this distance at 30 instead of 40 km/h would only take an extra minute on top of the current three. Hardly a sacrifice at all!
If you’d like to see the 2013 idea of “30 for Sunnyside” finally implemented for all of Hillhurst Sunnyside, you can help by voicing your support in upcoming City of Calgary traffic calming engagement opportunities. You can also let our City Councillor know that you are ready for safer 30 km/h streets today. For more information about neighbourhood speed limits refer to the Neighbourhood Speed Limits page on the City of Calgary’s site.