Waverley West speed-limit cut given red light

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/waverley-west-speed-limit-cut-shelve...

A PROPOSED three-year pilot project to reduce the speed limit on residential streets in Waverley West is set to be put in park.

The councillor for the area, Janice Lukes, said she will tell councillors on the public works committee on Monday to put aside her motion for now.

The proposal involved reducing the speed limit to 30 km/h. Lukes said it makes no sense to implement that when people are staying home and children are away from school because of the fight against COVID-19.

“With Waverley West only having three or four specific entrances into it, I thought, ‘Let’s try for a pilot project on speeds here,’” she said on Wednesday.

“We have a lot of speeding cars, but in light of the pandemic, what is most needed now is seeing more streets open for cycling and pedestrian access. Is (the pilot project) important now? No. There are other things the public works department could do, including identifying which streets can be closed.”

The idea was to drop the speed limit on residential streets in Bridgwater Forest, Bridgwater Lakes, Bridgwater Trails, Bridgwater Town Centre, South Pointe and Prairie Pointe.

Coun. Matt Allard, chairman of the committee, said it makes sense to delay the pilot project.

“We do have a residential, citywide, street report coming… in June,” Allard said.

“Not all roads are created equal in Winnipeg. We have priority one, two, three streets, we have streets with different engineering, we have high-speed streets (and) residential streets. I think all of this needs to be considered and there needs to be a response that makes sense citywide.”