All minor streets in Vancouver to see reduced 30 km/h speed limit through gradual implementation plan
City staff developed this implementation plan in response to City Council’s unanimous direction in April 2024, which approved a member motion by Green Party councillor Pete Fry directing staff to explore lowering the speed limit to 30 km/h on all local streets in residential areas.
However, this plan will be a very gradual rollout due to the associated high costs with installing 30 km/h signs on every street with the speed limit change.
Due to provincial regulations that require posted signage to note any exceptions, City staff estimate it would cost about $14 million to install two 30 km/h signs on each applicable city block.
For this reason, City staff are recommending a phased implementation, starting with the progressive installation of “gateway signage” in 25 select neighbourhoods over the span of three years at a cost of $350,000, with $250,000 coming from the provincial government’s $49 million Growing Communities Fund allocation to the City of Vancouver. This entails one 30 km/h sign and one neighbourhood slow zone sign per neighbourhood entry, with additional slow zones introduced at a later time.
These initial areas include the West End of downtown Vancouver, and select areas of the Dunbar-Southlands, Victoria-Fraserview, Killarney, Champlain Heights, River District, Mount Peasant, Railtown, Downtown Eastside, Strathcona, Grandview-Woodland, and Hastings-Sunrise.
If gateway signage were installed for all neighbourhoods, the cost would further increase to $3.1 million.
It is noted that 17 of these neighbourhoods already have some traffic calming measures in place, with most vehicles in such areas already operating below 30 km/h. The remaining eight neighbourhoods require additional traffic calming measures.
Additionally, City staff are recommending changing policies to enable the installation of speed humps (speed bumps) with ease, given that the reduced speed limit for local minor streets could be aided by such bumps.
Currently, the installation of speed humps on each segment of street on a city block needs at least 30 per cent of adjacent residents to respond to a survey and an approval rate over 50 per cent. City staff are recommending the removal of this required vote among residents, who would still be notified before the installation. According to City staff, every location since 2020 that has been considered for speed humps has been approved by adjacent residents. As well, an exemption from consultation was created in 2020 for speed humps at school and playground zones.
City staff are also considering setting separate speed limits on arterial and collector streets, with recommendations expected to be made at a later date.
Other speed limit changes introduced since the pandemic include implementing 24/7 speed limits of 30 km/h on local streets in all school and playground zones, as well as reducing speed limits to 30 km/h on segments of arterial and collector roads adjacent to select zones.
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