Rossland speed limit drops to 30 km/h

While the province is raising speed limits on some B.C. highways, one small Kootenay town is happy to take things nice and slow — 30 kilometres an hour slow.

The City of Rossland has dropped the town's speed limit from 40 kilometres per hour to 30, with a limit of 20 near school zones and particularly narrow streets, and a maximum of 15 in drop-off zones.  

"We are a small mountainous community with a lot of steep and narrow streets," said Rossland Mayor Kathy Moore in an interview with Radio West host Rebecca Zandbergen.  

Moore said this comes after years of speed-related safety concerns from citizens.

"Council took a look at it, and we decided that yeah, 30 kilometres an hour is plenty fast," Moore said.

More traffic-calming measures to come

Moore, who both drives a car and rides a motorcycle, practised driving at the new speed limits before they came into effect.

"There's a couple of streets where it's like, 'Wow this seems really slow,' but on most of them, it seems fine. It seems appropriate."

The new rules add about 30 seconds to each one-kilometer long drive, meaning nearly all residents will be able to reach a provincial highway in under three minutes, she said. 

Moore says this is part of a broader traffic-calming strategy to encourage walking and cycling on streets without raised sidewalks and designated cycling lanes. She said the city is looking to place speed bumps in other areas. 

So far, the response to the new rules has been largely positive, Moore said.

"I'm sure once a few people get tickets, they won't be quite so positive," she joked.

To hear the full interview with Mayor Kathy Moore, listen to the audio labelled: Rossland adopts city-wide speed limit of 30 km/h.