Council moved forward Monday night with administration's recommendations to reduce speed zones in four of the six communities in town flagged as having issues with speed.
The move was prompted by a recent notice of motion brought forward by Coun. Marni Fedeyko, who was prompted by safety concerns expressed to her by members of the community, particularly parents.
"I am happy with the outcome," said Fedeyko. "I believe this is a first step of a multi-layered solution which needs to include other traffic calming measures and enforcement. With Cochrane's population being made up of many young families, I think we need to do what we can to create communities that are safer and I want residents to know we are listening to their concerns."
Fedeyko said she went into council feeling she would not receive much support, which is why she "waffled on how to proceed" following administration's presentation – such as looking at other traffic calming measures or even a 40 km/h speed zone creation.
Couns. Morgan Nagel and Pat Wilson voted in opposition.
Wilson, owner/operator of Taxi4U, who is well acquainted with the speeds and streets in Cochrane, opted to "cancel this proposal altogether," feeling that the solutions on the table missed the mark.
"Increased enforcement could help, but recognition of the school zone itself would provide the greatest benefit," explained Wilson.
"I'm seeking more objective information from our traffic monitoring tool so that traffic calming initiatives can be piloted and measured as to its effectiveness .... I think it's much more common that drivers forget that they are in a school zone than that they are wilfully disobeying the law."
"I don't think we have a speed problem but an enforcement problem," added Nagel.
Bylaw provided data captured by the town's armadillo (a unit that records speeds and volumes) that surprised council, revealing that the majority of the time people are travelling the speed limit or even under the limit in the noted areas of concern.
The armadillo recorded the following, spending a week in each community and three weeks in Riverview:
First Street East: 50 km/h zone. Average speed 37.6 km/hr Max speed 81 km/h. Total of 14,578 vehicles recorded.
Fourth Avenue North: 50 km/h. Average speed 51 km/h. Max speed 118 km/h. Total of 4,092 vehicles recorded.
Quigley Drive: 50 km/h. Average speed 43.9 km/h. Max speed 82 km/h. Total of 22,715 vehicles recorded.
Riverview Drive: 50 km/h. Average speed 42.1 km/h. Max speed 128 km/h. Total of 33,000 vehicles recorded over three weeks.
Sunset Blvd: 50 km/h. Average speed 50.7 km/h. Max speed 86 km/h. Total of 10,000 vehicles recorded.
Sunterra Road: 50 km/h. Average speed 52 km/h. Max speed 87 km/h. Total of 3,953 vehicles recorded.
Of the six areas examined, two areas remain unchanged: Sunset Blvd to the intersection at Sunset and Sunvalley roads, as well as River Height Drive.
The four areas where speed zone changes will take place include:
From 94 Quigley Drive to West Pointe, the speed limit will be lowered to 30 km/h to achieve consistency and to address speeding in and out of school and playground zones.
Centre Avenue to Bowcroft Place will be reduced to 30 km/h with respect to Holy Spirit School.
Reduction to 30 km/h from Griffin Road to River Avenue to address speeding in Riverview (the community that launched a Pace Car Pilot earlier this year to take on a community approach to speeders).
Fourth Avenue North and Sunterra Road from Chiniki Drive to Sunterra Boulevard, with the exception of Sunterra Road (the big hill) will be reduced to 30 km/h.
Total cost to implement these changes will run around $2,000 and will be absorbed by the 2018 roads department budget to cover signage.
