The City of Vancouver began rolling out 30-kilometre-per-hour speed limits on residential streets in six neighbourhoods on Wednesday.
It marks the first phase of a multi-year plan to reduce collisions, injuries, and fatalities on local roads.
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New signage is being installed in areas including the River District, the West End’s Denman West, Grandview-Woodland, Mount Pleasant, the Downtown Eastside and Strathcona, and the St. George’s neighbourhood near Dunbar Street.
Mayor Ken Sim says the change from 50 km/h to 30 km/h is about protecting “kids walking to school, families out for a stroll, and seniors crossing the street in our neighbourhoods.”
“When we slow down, we save lives,” Sim added in a news release on the city’s website.
The move follows a unanimous council decision last summer to lower speeds.
According to ICBC, there were more than 7,500 crashes resulting in injury or — much less frequently — death in Vancouver in 2024. Roughly half of those crashes happened on residential streets, which make up around 80 per cent of the city’s road network.
ICBC says speed is the leading factor in fatal crashes in B.C. and that slower driving gives motorists more time to react to the unexpected.
City data shows the risk of a pedestrian being killed drops dramatically as vehicle speeds fall — from about 80 per cent at 50 km/h to roughly 15 per cent at 30 km/h.
“From a safety perspective, it’s really important we lower speeds on our roads,” said Haakon Koyote, a volunteer with Vision Zero Vancouver.
Koyote says the group would like to see the changes introduced more quickly across the city and paired with measures such as traffic calming and automated speed enforcement to ensure drivers follow the new limits.
“The police can’t be everywhere at once.”
Koyote also adds that slower neighbourhood speeds are unlikely to significantly affect commute times because drivers in Vancouver spend much of their trips stopped at lights and intersections.
“The traffic impact of crashes is quite a bit more substantial on our roads.”
The city says the six neighbourhoods are the first of 25 slow zones planned over the next three years, as funding becomes available.
Under provincial legislation, the default speed limit is 50 km/h unless otherwise posted, meaning municipalities must install signs to enforce lower limits.
