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Regina City Council is lowering the speed limit in the Cathedral neighbourhood to 40 kilometres per hour.
This is part of the Vision Zero Road Safety Framework – which is what the city calls a driven framework designed for all road users (cyclists, pedestrians, drivers etc.). Vision Zero designates Cathedral as a “Community Safety Zone.”
Mayor Sandra Masters said the goal of Vision Zero is to reduce the likelihood of crashes – especially those that cause major injuries and death.
Concern about pedestrian safety in Cathedral were raised following the deaths of two pedestrians in 2023 – one being a 16-year-old boy.
“When you look at other Canadian cities, they’ve reduced their speed limits and residential zones to 40 kilometers an hour,” said Masters after the meeting.
“I think there’s much more work to be done, and clearly, it’s still up for debate when the public bylaw comes forward, so I’m sure there’s more iterations.”
‘Reducing the speed limit will increase the survivability of a person or cyclists being hit by a car,’ Mayor Sandra Masters says. (980 CJME file photo)
Masters said a bylaw will have to come to council before the changes come into effect and new signs are posted. The mayor said that could happen within the next two to four weeks.
The mayor said city administration is going to continue to work to reduce crashes, major injuries and death.
“Reducing the speed limit will increase the survivability of a person or cyclists being hit by a car, but it also reduces the severity of a car crash itself,” Masters said.
“There’s a reason SGI is involved in this. It’s because they would like to reduce just the number of crashes as well … You have more reaction time and your field of vision is increased if you’re going slower.”
Masters was asked if public feedback could reverse the change.
“If there’s overwhelming feedback going into councillors, you could absolutely see a change just like you could see a change the other way in terms of ‘we should go slower,’” Masters said.
“I think we’re trying to find a balance between moving cars to and from homes and businesses and just reducing the severity of crashes that cause major injury or death.”
The mayor added that the speed limit is just one component, and that there will be work on everything from lighting to speed bumps to intersection signals in an effort to improve safety.
Masters said there hasn’t yet been an analysis of all of the accidents that have happened in the city, and said she would like to see more concrete data. She also said it was important to analyze the cause of the accidents.
The Cathedral Village Community Association (CVCA) has voiced support for Vision Zero, saying pedestrian safety is one of the neighbourhood’s biggest concerns.
CVCA surveyed businesses in the area last week on behalf of the city.
Vice chair Phil Jeffreys told the Greg Morgan Morning Show that 30 per cent of those surveyed preferred a 30 km/h zone and 39 per cent preferred a 40 km/h zone.
The Cathedral Village Arts Festival. (980 CJME file photo)
Jeffreys pointed out that 87 per cent of people wanted a change away from the 50 km/h speed.
“I’ve heard horror stories of cars regularly doing 60 or 70 kilometres an hour through the school zone, so a lot of businesses are quite happy to have speed reduced,” he said.
“Others were concerned that the reduced speed would be too slow, and people would avoid the area.”
Jeffreys said the trend he noticed from business owners was for in favour of dropping the speed down to 40 km/h.
“It could apply to the whole neighbourhood, which would be great,” he said. “That seems to be the major factor – people really do want change.”
Second vote leads to confusion
Originally, it was proposed that Cathedral’s speed limit would be lowered to 30 km/h.
However, during an April council meeting, it was decided that speed limit change would be voted on separately from three other items which were unanimously approved. After confusion arose during the meeting, the decision to implement the speed limit was pushed to May’s meeting.
However, at the beginning of Wednesday’s meeting, city clerk Jim Nicol revealed that the speed limit change had already been decided on during April’s meeting.
During that meeting, it was Coun. John Findura who successfully motioned for the speed limit to change to go from 30 km/h to 40.
When council voted on the amended version of the speed limit drop, it was defeated 6-5. But Coun. Jason Mancinelli requested a re-vote, saying he had meant to vote in favour of the change instead of against it. With council’s unanimous approval, his request was granted but Coun. Andrew Stevens changed his vote from supporting the recommendation to opposing it.
“There was no authority for any other member’s vote to change,” Nicol said.
Nicol said the misunderstanding arose from a procedural error on his part.
“In short, there should not have been the second vote. Rather, item number four (changing the speed limit) should have been deemed to have been passed with the revised vote of six in favour and five against,” Nicol explained.
However Nicol added, any member of council is free to seek further reconsideration of the matter by serving a notice of motion to future meetings or when the bylaw is brought before council.
“To the council, members of the public and administration, I sincerely apologize for my error and for any additional confusion that this has caused,” Nicol said.
–With files from 980 CJME’s Abby Zieverink
