Vancouver's city council has voted unanimously to reduce the speed limit on local streets to 30 kilometres per hour, down from the provincially mandated 50 kilometres per hour.
Speed doesn’t get you around faster in urban areas, especially not in residential neighbourhoods, because stop signs and traffic lights (when not ignored) extend your trip more.
That’s why as a cyclist, I’m often catching up to cars going 3-4x faster than me. And when cars are queued up at stops, I’m often passing those “fast” cars, too.
But 30km/h is less likely to kill people, which is a good thing.
Speed doesn’t get you around faster in urban areas, especially not in residential neighbourhoods, because stop signs and traffic lights (when not ignored) extend your trip more.
That’s why as a cyclist, I’m often catching up to cars going 3-4x faster than me. And when cars are queued up at stops, I’m often passing those “fast” cars, too.
But 30km/h is less likely to kill people, which is a good thing.