Speed limits are set to be reduced along the Oceanfront and downtown areas in 2025.
District of Squamish councillors voted to support a staff recommendation to lower posted speed limits in the two areas down to 30 km per hour as of mid-next year.
The decision made at the Dec. 17 regular council meeting also saw staff directed to include a “blanket speed limit reduction to 40km/h” across the remainder of the community, for consideration in the 2026 budget process.
Background
District manager of transportation, Brent McMurtry, spoke on the item at the committee of the whole meeting on Dec. 10.
“Speeding contributes to approximately 30% of all traffic-related fatalities in British Columbia, and there's evidence that shows that reducing posted speed limits can lead to increased traffic safety for all modes,” McMurty said.
The community consultation revealed that 67% of Squamish residents who took part in the engagement process had “speed-related concerns on collector streets”—which are the classification of streets that are for moving vehicles throughout the community— with 33% raising concerns over local roads and laneways.
“This is consistent with the collision data that we saw as well, where there are more collisions on collector streets than there are on local streets in the community,” McMurty said.
“There was fairly broad support for speed limit reduction within our community, with the greatest support for the downtown and Oceanfront area, followed by local and collector streets.”
“When we asked about the level of support for specific speeds in the downtown area, approximately just over a third felt that 30 km/h is the preferred speed.”
The BC Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) sets 50 km/hr as the default speed limit for municipalities.
Three options were proposed to council in relation to speed limit changes.
- Option 1: a reduction to 30 km/h at the Oceanfront and downtown
- Option 2: a blanket 40km/h speed limit change across Squamish
- Option 3: 30 km/h at the Oceanfront and downtown and 40km/h elsewhere
According to the Municipal Speed Limit Reduction report, a blanket approach “would apply to all roads not already part of another speed limit approach. It wouldn’t apply in school zones, neighbourhood ways or potentially in an area already designated via an area-based approach.”
There is $165,000 in the 2025 budget for the implementation of the 30km/h speed limit reductions in the Oceanfront and downtown areas, which includes signage and communications. It does not include traffic calming, enforcement or transit operating expenses.
McMurty also said that there would be financial impacts associated with transit as a result of each speed limit reduction option.
“As speed limits are reduced, you need more service hours to provide the same level of service to our transit … BC Transit supported us by completing an analysis and showed that the additional cost would range from $60,000 to almost $370,000 annually,” he said.
Staff recommended Option 1—reducing the speed limit to 30km/h at the two locations only—which the council opted for, but amended the motion to also consider the blanket speed limit reduction to 40km/h in the 2026 budget process.
Council comments
“This approach allows us to move with the budget that we have allocated to this project already and secondly, provides the direction to staff to further investigate what the impacts would be,” Mayor Armand Hurford said at the committee of the whole meeting.
“I hear the concern of the community and of the folks around this table that they want to push out further than the downtown core, and I generally agree with that, and I think this is a way that we can do that in a better-informed way, which also gives us time to work with the community, to get them ready for this change that's coming.”
Coun. Andrew Hamilton was in support of only changing to a blanket speed limit of 40 km/h but ultimately backed the motion to also reduce the limits in the two localized areas.
“I don't believe that the 30 km/h zone downtown is going to achieve our objectives, but I am in agreement that the 40 km/h blanket zone, coming later, may achieve some of these objectives,” Hamilton said.
“The speed limit change is a necessary step in having enforcement actually happen. If we change the signs, that's not going to automatically make everybody drive slower, but it is a necessary first step.”
Coun. Lauren Greenlaw supported the motion but said further consultation with the trucking and transit industries should be completed to fully “understand the impacts” on them.
“I don't necessarily think that this is a step that needs to be taken prior to increased enforcement on speeding. We just need increased enforcement on speeding because we already have people speeding a lot through all of our neighbourhoods.”
There were a lot of question marks around what kind of enforcement would be in play once the speed limit changes come into effect, but Coun. Jenna Stoner suggested a creative approach.
“I envision this brigade of citizens who have pledged to just always drive the speed limit. That's one of the most legit ways to slow everybody down, is if there's one car who's going at or below the speed limit,” Stoner said.
“So, do we have 100 people in the community who sign on, who say, I will always drive just below the speed limit, and then you slow everybody down?
“I think that there are other ways that we can really think about [enforcement] that actually engages our community, and there are a lot of really active, vocal citizens who are concerned about street safety and road safety, and how do we empower them to take action, and how do we support them in doing so.”
Council members unanimously supported the motion at the regular council meeting Dec.17.
According to the report, “staff will develop a communications plan that will accompany the signage installation. The anticipated timeline for signage to be in the ground is mid-2025.”
For more information on the speed limit reductions, visit the District of Squamish website and read their Municipal Speed Limit Reduction report.
