Some drivers have a need for speed, most obvious on highway 11 when somebody passes you in the left-hand lane going so fast you feel like you’re standing still or in Saskatoon on Circle Drive when you’re doing 90 and vehicles whiz by you. Maybe they just moved here from or are visiting from Germany where many rural sections of the Autobahn have no general speed limit while other sections and other highways have posted limits of 130 kms per hour. On 6-lane highways there’s even a minimum speed of 110 in the outside lane and 90 in the middle lane. Some of our speed demons would love that. Of course we don’t have many 6-lane roads around here. The default speed limit in urban areas in Germany is like ours, 50 kms per hour, unless otherwise posted. Charlie Clark, when he was a Councillor, broached the idea of lowering residential street limits to 40. Now, lo and behold, city administration is asking council’s permission to look at whether to lower the posted speed limit on neighbourhood streets to below 50. They say lowering the speed limit to 30 on the neighbourhood street portion of a commute would add less than a minute to the average travel time and lowering the limit to 40 would improve the survival rate for pedestrians and cyclists involved in a collision by 40%. Speeding on residential streets is a major concern and council should give the go-ahead for a speed limit review. There is no “need for speed” in residential neighbourhoods.

That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.v