After 90 minutes of contentious debate, the town council has approved the change to a 30 kilometer per hour speed limit town-wide. In addition to the speed limit change skateboards and rollerblades are now permitted on all the roads that were previously banned.

It was brought to light that reducing the speed limit to 30 km/h from 40 along the entire stretch on Banff avenue would increase travel time by less than 1 minute.

Mayor Corrie DiManno was quoted as saying “Slower is safer, and in a community with four square kilometers, I don’t understand the need for speed”. Although everyone seemed to agree with that premise some councilors and residents wanted to keep the speed limit at 40 km/hour on some or all of the roads where that is currently the limit. There was concern that the steep hills on some of the roads such as Tunnel Mountain Road or Mountain Avenue make it difficult or even onerous to maintain such a reduced speed.

“Slower is safer, and in a community with four square kilometres, I don’t understand the need for speed”

– Mayor Corrie DiManno

Nonetheless, the law has been passed and expects to see the limits changed in about a month once the new signs have been installed and public education has commenced.