Saskatoon city council votes for playground, school speed limit zones to run 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. year-round

Saskatoon city council had a difficult time agreeing on speed limit zone times for schools during Monday's meeting, but eventually decided on 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST.

Councillors described it as a very contentious topic in the community, 

The city's transportation committee endorsed the idea to change the times earlier in November. It also proposed the creation of new playground zones with a speed limit of 30 kilometres per hour. Councillors say the new rules would make streets safer, especially for children.

City council passed the item Monday, but not without a fair amount of debate. 

The initial proposal would have seen the new zones active every day from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. CST. However, councillors were in disagreement about the times, with some preferring a later start at 8 a.m. and an earlier finish of 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. 

"It's really important that we think carefully about whether a little bit of travel time is worth added safety around some of these most vulnerable spaces in our community," said Hilary Gough, councillor for ward 2.

"I think it's really important, too, that we think not only about the current times and places when we see kids at play or crossing the street, but also the latent demand that exists."

After three votes, the new timeframe was amended to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST and accepted. The zones will be in effect year-round, seven days a week. 

Mayor Charlie Clark sided with the seven-to-seven amendment, pointing out that high schools will no longer have speed limit time zones.

"We are now going to have much fewer speed zones [and] school zones on arterial streets as a result of the reduction of the high schools. And these zones will only be around elementary schools ... the vast majority of which are not on on the busier streets," he said.

"And seven-to-seven is just easy to understand." 

Council also agreed on the implementation of senior zones. These measures will focus on increasing pedestrian crossing times at signalised intersections, pedestrian devices, traffic calming, enhanced pavement markings and improved street lighting in certain areas.

These changes will be implemented in 2022.