Speed limit reductions coming to neighbourhoods

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This article was published 13/05/2023 (1056 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The next phase of Brandon’s “vision zero” pilot project will include entire neighbourhoods where streets will have their speed limits reduced.

Brandon first started to lower speed limits last year when Durum Drive in the city’s southwest had its limit reduced to 40 kilometres an hour from 50 km/h to address nearby residents’ concerns over excessive speeding.

Vision zero is a philosophy for traffic design that aims for no fatalities or injuries.

Originally set for one year, that pilot project was renewed this year with plans to expand the number of streets with lower speed limits announced at a Ward 9 meeting earlier this week.

The agenda for the next Brandon City Council meeting on Monday reveals much more detail about the city’s plans.

Two neighbourhoods, Parkdale and River Heights, will have all streets within them, except for those on their boundaries, lowered to 40 km/h.

The city’s boundaries for Parkdale are labeled as Richmond Avenue to the north, 26th Street to the east, Maryland Avenue to the south and 34th Street to the west. River Heights’ boundaries are listed as the CP Rail tracks to the north, 34th Street to the east, Victoria Avenue to the south and 50th Street to the west.

“Note that the boundary streets themselves will not have a reduced speed limit but will continue to be either the default speed limit of 50 km/h or otherwise posted,” a document reads.

“All roadways within this boundary shall be a default speed limit of 40 km/h or otherwise posted. For example, school zones with a time sensiive speed limit of 30 km/h shall be in effect during the posted hours and dates. Outside these times and dates, the default rate will be 40 km/h.”

As announced at the Ward 9 meeting, the 400 and 500 blocks of Lorne Avenue East, the 300 and 400 blocks of Park Street and the 300 block of Franklin Street surrounding Rideau Park will have their speed limits reduced to 30 km/h.

The final part of the plan is to lower the speed limit on Princess Avenue East from First Street to 13th Street East.

All of these additions to the pilot project are expected to be in place for one year. The changes in Parkdale and River Heights will go into effect June 1 with the Princess Avenue East and Rideau Park limits changes in July.

The city estimates the cost of installing new speed limit signs will be around $8,000.

Also at Monday’s meeting, Deanna Smid and Grant Hamilton from Brandon University will present on how the first year of the school’s Bee U urban beekeeping program went.

Last year, the university installed two beehives housing approximately 40,000 bees on the roof of Harvest Hall from June to September with the help of beekeeper Mike Clark.

According to a copy of the presentation attached to Monday’s agenda, the beehives produced 250 pounds of honey.

Heading into year two, the plan is to double the number of beehives and move them to a more easily accessible location on the roof of the Knowles-Douglas Students’ Union Centre.

One of the program’s goals for this year is to find a Canadian Food Inspection Agency-approved facility to extract honey from the hives so it can more easily be sold. Last year, the project could only sell its honey through market-style events because it was not handled at a CFIA-approved facility.

Other presentations scheduled for Monday’s meeting include one from the city’s Groundwater User Group, which helps manage the local aquifer, a status update from Sustainable Brandon and a request by a delegation from Spruce Woods Housing Co-op asking that the facility be exempted from municipal property taxes.

Votes will be held on whether to accept the proposed climate change action plan for the city as well as on proposed changes to Brandon’s taxi bylaws.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @ColinSlark