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    Grant Speed Limit Review - Press Release

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    Christian Sweryda
    For over 20 years, studies have shown that the speed limit on Grant Ave in Winnipeg is too low based on the 85th percentile speed of traffic and collision rates. City reports from 1991 and 2003 recommended raising the limit from 50km/h to 60km/h based on engineering studies, but politicians ignored the recommendations. Instead, a speed camera was installed that has issued over 50,000 tickets, showing the goal was revenue generation not safety. Raising the limit to match prevailing traffic speeds would make enforcement more fair and potentially improve safety.

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    Grant Speed Limit Review - Press Release

    Uploaded by

    Christian Sweryda
    152 views4 pages
    For over 20 years, studies have shown that the speed limit on Grant Ave in Winnipeg is too low based on the 85th percentile speed of traffic and collision rates. City reports from 1991 and 2003 recommended raising the limit from 50km/h to 60km/h based on engineering studies, but politicians ignored the recommendations. Instead, a speed camera was installed that has issued over 50,000 tickets, showing the goal was revenue generation not safety. Raising the limit to match prevailing traffic speeds would make enforcement more fair and potentially improve safety.

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    Wise Up Winnipeg press release regarding proposed speed limit changes on Grant Ave.

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    For over 20 years, studies have shown that the speed limit on Grant Ave in Winnipeg is too low based on the 85th percentile speed of traffic and collision rates. City reports from 1991 and 2003 recommended raising the limit from 50km/h to 60km/h based on engineering studies, but politicians ignored the recommendations. Instead, a speed camera was installed that has issued over 50,000 tickets, showing the goal was revenue generation not safety. Raising the limit to match prevailing traffic speeds would make enforcement more fair and potentially improve safety.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    152 views4 pages

    Grant Speed Limit Review - Press Release

    Uploaded by

    Christian Sweryda
    For over 20 years, studies have shown that the speed limit on Grant Ave in Winnipeg is too low based on the 85th percentile speed of traffic and collision rates. City reports from 1991 and 2003 recommended raising the limit from 50km/h to 60km/h based on engineering studies, but politicians ignored the recommendations. Instead, a speed camera was installed that has issued over 50,000 tickets, showing the goal was revenue generation not safety. Raising the limit to match prevailing traffic speeds would make enforcement more fair and potentially improve safety.

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    of 4

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Speed Limit On Grant Ave.

    Too Low For Over 20 Years According To City of Winnipeg Reports For over 20 years, travel speeds and collision history all supported the implementation of a 60 km/h speed limit on Grant Ave. Winnipeg, Nov. 21, 2012 Despite studies of collision data and travel speeds, the speed limit on Grant Ave. has remained inadequately low, putting road users at risk and creating unfair enforcement opportunities. Speed limits in North America are set by using what is known as the 85th percentile speed and are recognized by the National Motorist Association as, "the safest possible level at which to set a speed limit." The City of Winnipeg's own website recognizes this practice which states that Public Works recommends speed limits be, "based on the measured 85th percentile speed of traffic on the street, being the speed at or below which 85% of motorists operate their vehicle, provided that the collision rate is within acceptable limits." The speed limit on Grant was lowered from 60 km/h to 50 km/hr on Feb 24, 1989 as part of an 18 month trial. After the trial the City of Winnipeg was requested by the Highway Traffic Board to, "submit a report and recommendation to the Highway Traffic Board on the 85th percentile speeds, truck and car volumes and collision rates." The 1991 report filed by the city indicated that 85th percentile speed readings before the change were on average 65.5 km/h and only dropped to 63.8 km/h after the change. All readings were over 60 km/h. After a one year period speeds only dropped as low as 62.9 km/h. It was also shown that at one location, (Grant west of Harrow) speeds actually increased after the speed drop. These findings widely support the City of Winnipeg's website which states that, "posted speed limits which are set higher or lower than that dictated by roadway and traffic conditions are ignored by the majority of motorists; and that when speed limits are raised or lowered, there is very little impact on motorists' actual speeds." The report also stated that collision rates were comparable to that of other regional roads and that, "the measured travel speeds support a return to the previous 60 km/h maximum speed limit." It has been found that speed limits that are too low create larger speed differences and according to the City of Winnipeg, "more collisions occur when the speeds of vehicles are varied with extremely high or low speeds encountered." "With all of this evidence, why was the speed limit not reinstated back to 60 km/h in 1991," asks Todd Dube. "This problem has led to an inadequately low speed limit for over 20 years. Evidently it was not addressed so it could be deliberately exploited by the photo enforcement program.

    In 2003, this issue was brought up by again by Public Works through new speed readings and collision analysis which concluded that, "A radar speed study and a collision rate evaluation support the establishment of a 60 km/h speed limit on Grant Ave. between Stafford Street and Kenaston Boulevard." A 2002 study of travel speeds on Grant found that 85th percentile speeds had returned exactly to the 63.8 km/h average recorded shortly after the limit changed in 1989. The collision history was found to be, "comparable to the City-wide average." The report also concluded that increasing the limit back to 60 km/h would create speed limit consistency and reduce cut-through traffic on side-roads. Despite the engineering report from Public Works, the Standing Policy Committee carried a motion, "that the administrative recommendation not be concurred with. This is simply a case of politicians taking over the job of engineers," states Dube. "Why do we have traffic engineers who draft engineering reports if our civic leaders are not going to listen to them." The obvious reasoning behind the committee's actions became especially apparent a year later when a speed camera was installed at Grant and Wilton (the location with the highest travel speeds). To date that camera has issued 53,396 speeding tickets. "So instead of following the engineering report to raise a speed limit, they installed a camera," states Chris Sweryda from Wise Up Winnipeg. "In the 2011 statistics, this camera was the highest ticket generator in the city and issued over 800 tickets more than the next most prolific camera. This is in addition to the estimated tens of thousands of tickets produced by mobile photo radar vehicles at Grant/Nathaniel & Grant/Renfrew and years of constant police enforcement." These enforcement abuses are exactly what the 1991 report warned of by stating that, "the setting of a maximum speed limit appreciably below the 85th percentile speed of travel...exposes road users that have not acted contrary to public safety to prosecution and consequences." The report also warns that an inadequate speed limit will, "greatly increase the burden of enforcement upon the police agency." However, the use of automated enforcement has obviously solved that problem. The city's statement that the raising of speed limits has little impact on the speed of a road is further proven by the results of past speed limit increases. When the speed limit was changed from 50 km/h to 60 km/h on the Disraeli Freeway, the camera statistics at Disraeli/Lily dropped from 9,430 tickets for the 2 months before the change to 96 (a 99% drop) tickets in the two months following the change. An identical situation happened to the camera at Century/Silver when the speed on Century was changed from 60 to 70 km/h. For the four months before the change, 4,200 tickets were issued compared to 200 (a 95% drop) in the four months following the change. At both of these previous top producing locations numbers have remained near the

    lowest in the city. The camera on Century issued a total of 3 tickets for the 2008 year and the camera on Disraeli isn't even present anymore. "This just proves that once you make a speed limit adequate, speeders miraculously disappear because they always were and will continue to be responsible and prudent motorists," states Dube. "Unlike the claims of many people, drivers are not going to speed anyway when presented with a higher limit. It simply doesn't happen. There has been some resistance to the speed changes on Grant due to the presence of four schools. In reality, two of those schools (John Dafoe & Sir William Osler) have been closed since 1991. Grant Park High School is not actually on Grant but is on Nathaniel which leaves only Montrose School. Ironically these closed schools, were open when the limit was 60 km/h and closed shortly after the limit became 50 km/h. Many 60 km/h roads have school zones already without problems. "Almost all major roads have at least one school zone," states Sweryda. "These are busy roads and include Portage, Lagimodiere, Pembina, Nairn and Main Street just to name a few. Winnipeg already has over 30 school zones on roads with 60 km/h and higher limits." The speeds on Grant are already in the 60 km/h range. Making the speed limit closer to the operating speed will only make the school zone safer. It eliminates the false sense of security associated with a lower limit. In addition, the city uses larger school zone signs, better school fencing and pedestrian warning signs in 60 km/h and higher zones. These extra measures are not taken on Grant because of the perceived security of the 50 km/hr speed limit. But if the limit were raised, this infrastructure would likely be upgraded a prudent step considering that the traffic flow is already naturally driving at ~60 km/hr anyways. Raising this limit will only make the road safer and enforcement more fair concludes Wise Up Winnipeg. The current scenario intentionally exploits a very deceptive element while at the same time compromising safety. - 30 For supporting information see: http://www.motorists.org/speed-limits/faq http://www.winnipeg.ca/publicworks/InformationAndResources/TrafficControl/SpeedLimits http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/grant-speed-limit-is-result-ofspurious-reasoning-135983293.html http://www.scribd.com/doc/113816104/City-of-Winnipeg-Grant-speed-Limit-Report http://www.scribd.com/doc/113939050/Grant-Speed-Limit-1991-Report

    Media Contacts: Chris Sweryda Ph. 204-801-9239 e-mail: [email protected] Todd Dube Ph. 204-795-5120 e-mail: [email protected] website: www.wiseupwinnipeg.com

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