Limit Your Speed…It’s Worth It aims at driver’s awareness and wallets to reduce speeding
Seen anything new on the road lately?
You may have noticed the new signs the city has put up as part of its plan to curb speeding in residential areas. These solar powered radar boards flash the posted speed if you are exceeding it, and are all part of the Limit Your Speed campaign.
One of the 14 new solar powered Limit Your Speed ... It's Worth It signs.
Photo courtesy: City of Calgary
The city is attempting to lower the number of drivers exceeding speed limits, especially in residential areas, by focusing on driver education, awareness and the incentive of avoiding hefty speeding tickets,
“We would like Calgarians to be aware that travelling over the posted speed is a danger to themselves and others,” said Troy McLeod, manager of traffic for the City of Calgary.
And this danger is why McLeod said he wants drivers “to focus on the speed limits and check their speedometer as they’re travelling.”
The Calgary police also see driver awareness as an issue.
“For a lot of people, their vehicles are their workplace, their office. They’re multitasking so they’re not paying 100 per cent attention to what they should be doing, and that’s driving,” said police officer Jim Lebedeff.
Lebedeff added that speeding was the most frequently written summons by Calgary police in 2009, totaling 278,933 tickets, including photo radar. That’s almost 16 per cent of all summonses.
Sgt. Dale Gorrill is a supporter of the new signs.
“Those signs make a significant difference. When people see them they’re much more pronounced and obvious,” Gorrill said. “Just a normal sign on the side of the road does very little. The electronic ones have more of an impact.”
Limit Your Speed’s educational approach is seen in advertisements giving drivers statistics on the risks associated with speed. The signs, which have been placed all over the city, have messages telling drivers that speeding just 10 km/h over the limit increases the risk of injury or death by 73 per cent, and that “25 per cent of fatal crashes involved speeding.”
Ald. Bob Hawkesworth supports the program and said driver education is a good idea. Hawkesworth said he would go even further to make Calgary’s roads a safer place.
The 14 current locations of the Limit Your Speed signs
- Centre Street at 68 Avenue N.W.
- 26 Avenue at 26 Street S.E.
- 18 Street at 21 Street S.E.
- Tuscany Boulevard at Tuscany Valley View N.W.
- Richmond Road at 31 Street S.W.
- Old Banff Coach Road at Coach Hill Road S.W.
- Heritage Meadows Road at Heritage Meadows Way S.E.
- Harvest Hills Boulevard at Beddington Trail N.W.
- Elbow Drive at 73 Avenue S.W.
- Country Hills Boulevard at 112 Avenue N.W.
- Canyon Meadows Drive at Deer Run Boulevard S.E.
- Beddington Trail at Hidden Valley Gate N.W.
- 68 Street at Pinetree Crescent N.E.
- 19 Street at 10 Avenue N.W.
|
“I would say we need to fund more traffic measures in areas where there are lots of pedestrians and potential conflicts,” Hawkesworth said. “I would take a look at road widths and standards, and encourage reducing the widths of roads as a way of contributing to lower overall speeds.”
McLeod, manager of traffic for the city, described some positives that lead to choosing the solar powered signs.
“We wanted a device that was portable,” McLeod said. “We liked the fact that we’re able to use green technology to provide a safety message.”
McLeod also said the six-month campaign cost “would be in the order of $100,000.”
While Limit Your Speed won’t focus on driver-to-driver interactions during its run from April to September, Lebedeff said he believes a little more consideration on the road could also help make the roads a safer place.
“Be a little more courteous out there,” Lebedeff said. “If you realize you cut somebody off, how about that little wave of ‘sorry, I didn’t mean to do that type of thing’? That goes a long way with a lot of people.
“Instead of getting that road rage going they go, ‘oh okay, he didn’t mean it or she didn’t mean it, it’s not a big deal.’ And that’s why I say wave with all five fingers instead of just the one.”
|
