Survey says … Lac La Biche council hears from some residents\
"Do you wanna go faster?" That might be the bark of a carnival operator, but it’s also the recent request sent out to residents from Lac La Biche County’s transportation officials.
For Lac La Biche residents, it would seem that no matter who asks the question, the answer is no.
“We put out an online survey to residents for their reaction to speed limits … we asked four questions," says Lac La Biche County’s associate CAO for Infrastructure Services Brian Shapka, explaining a recently released report outlining the responses.
The questions asked resident if they were in favour of reducing residential speeds to 40 kilometres per hour from the posted 50, keeping them the same, going slower than 40, or higher than 50.
“We had 186 responses — and of those, just under 60 per cent wanted to remain the same, just over 30 per cent, or a third," said to reduce them to 40, and 4.84 per cent wanted to go to 35 or 30.
Shapka said the survey drew some comments from respondents as well, explaining their decisions.
“Where children are playing in neighbourhoods, some said they were concerned that 50 was too fast … another said it was a ‘cash grab’ and we would be setting up photo radar,” he said.
Need for speed on some roads
There were a few comments calling for increased speed limits on some of the larger municipal roadways. “For Airport Road and Lakeview Drive we had some asking for more speed.”
Another response said the money used for the survey, or to change speed signs, “would be better spent on filling potholes,” Shapka said, “… so, a variety of responses.”
Councillors have accepted the speed review report as information. Administrators are expected to report back to councillors with responses to the requests for higher speeds on the main, rural roadways. Lac La Biche County Mayor Paul Reutov asked to have the Caslan Connector road that runs south from the Plamondon 4-Corners added to that list. Portion of that roadway, along areas near rural residences, have slower speed limits than other parts of the highway-graded roadway.
More surveys expected
Although only 186 responses were collected — and it was not identified how many were duplicate responders — Lac La Biche County councillors feel that online surveys are an effective tool to hear from residents.
“It’s a good example of getting public engagement on issues — and this one has been answered for us … so we can move on,” said Reutov.
Saying that it’s clear “not everyone” responds to surveys, councillor Lorin Tkachuk says they can be a quick and relatively easy way to hear from the public.
More online surveys are expected to be added to the data collection of municipal projects in the future.
