City gets rid of 60 km/h zones

Maria Rantanen

MRANTANEN@R CHMOND-NEWS COM

Roads where cars go 50 kilometres per hour can actually handle almost double the traffic of roads with 60- or 70-kilometre speed zones

This might seem “counter-intuitive,” explained Richmond’s director of transportation Lloyd Bie, but some American studies have shown roads with a 50-kilometre speed limit can handle about 900 cars per hour, whereas roads with higher limits can handle about 500 cars per hour.

City council unanimously approved lowering speed limits on all roads within Richmond’s jurisdiction to a maximum of 50 kilometres per hour.

There are four such stretches of road in Richmond that allow vehicles to travel 60 kilometres per hour, and some of these have been identified as high-crash areas.

These stretches are No 6 Road between Cambie Road and Westminster Highway; Westminster Highway between No 4 and

No 6 roads as well as from Nelson to Highway 91; Vulcan Way from No 6 Road going west almost to Bath Slough; as well as Alderbridge Way between No. 4 and Shell roads

More traffic cameras wanted

Council also voted to ask the province to install more traffic enforcement cameras within the city something that’s under provincial jurisdiction

Currently, there are 10 photo radar cameras in Richmond to catch scofflaws one to catch speeders, at the intersection of Cambie and Garden City roads, and nine for vehicles that run red lights

City council approved and installed traffic cameras at dozens of intersections two years ago to monitor traffic and collect traffic data, but the city isn’t allowed to use them to catch speeders or vehicles that run red lights

After a brazen daytime shooting two years ago, city council voted 7-1 with Coun Michael Wolfe voting in opposition asking the province to increase the quality of the camera footage.

Wolfe said this week, while he’s supportive of the current network of cameras for data collection at a low-resolution, he wouldn’t want that necessarily expanded to allow them to do more

“I would be hesitant to support opening up to the high-definition and potential invasion of privacy of citizens and road users, ” Wolfe said

When the cameras were approved by city council three years ago, a staff lawyer with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Meghan McDermott, told the Richmond News the issue of privacy in a public place is not black and white Various court decisions have shown the public is allowed a certain level of anonymity even while in public McDermott said at the time that if faces and license plates weren’t blurred out from traffic camera data, the information could be used maliciously or just for general state surveillance

The privacy commissioner recommended the data be handled by the city rather than Richmond RCMP, unless there is an emergency such as an abduction